president?

Fantasy

I stink at Fantasy Football, but wow it is really fun. Why is that? Am I trying to imitate the high paid version of the NFL coach? Do I really think I have it in me at all to manage, organize, create, coach a real football team? I am confident that I would ruin any football team that would put me in charge.

today, I won my first game. It does feel great to win. To nearly crush the opposition. Then to toss a little friendly trash talk their way. Totally forgetting that last week I got totally beat. But last week is so....last week. This is today. This is now. This is what matters today.

But, there is always next weekend where it all gets reset again.

I love NFL Football. Even if I stink at it.

Better to be out, but more painful

Why is it that when you are in a situation you can't see how wrong you are? But once you take a step out, or are asked to take a step out, you see how badly you needed to be out of that situation in the first place.

It seems at some times in life our growth or the growth of an organization is stifled by others that are in control. Once an individual leaves they are in a better position to see this than when they are actually in the situation. The exit is usually painful, being fired or asked to leave or just to leave out of frustration, but wow, the freedom to grow and expand. To follow your passions that for years were being pushed down or stifled by the powers that be.

Then the question arises..... Who guides or tells the 'powers that be' that a change needs to take place in them not in everyone else?

I am happy to be in a place where I am encouraged to grow and the organization grows with me. I write this in response to others who are in a bad place and it frustrates me how they are treated, which is why I am glad that I am not in that place now.

Happy Father's DAY

Found this. Great for father's day. Made me laugh.

Distractions

A book that I am reading has this quote from Hans Hofmann, an artisan born in Bavaria, "If you want the necessary to stand out, you have to get rid of the unnecessary." This quote is shared in the shadow of a story about King Hezekiah and his actions of taking down all that distracted the Israelites from true worship of God the father (2 Kings 18 and following). Then I pondered the many things that are obvious in distracting me from growth and worship.

One fear that I have is that I spend so much time dealing with the large and obvious distractions that I have let creep in the subtle to ruin my growth.

Another fear is that what I have let creep in I rationalize as necessary to worship and growth.

then I am left with a week and stunted spiritual life without the stamina to withstand the struggles that are coming my way. How can I expect myself to grow if I am distracted? How can I remove the distractions if I cannot recognize them or identify them as distractions?

What is the first thing that King Hezekiah does when presented with potential war with the Assyrians? 2 Kings 19:1 "When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord."

Now, of course all of my struggles pale in the light of this potential distraction. I am not anywhere near pondering war, death, battles, surrender, captivity, or the like. I am instead dealing with the subtlety of the unnecessary that ruins my personal growth.

He of course wins in God's great plan and timing.

so, how necessary is the unnecessary? What is unnecessary?

I can point out the obvious. Then the more time I spend with the Lord the eaiser it will be to remove the unobvious and unnecessary.

Drive Safe

What is with that

Why is it tradition or good manners or what ever to tell a person or persons when they part ways to "Drive Safely?" What does that really mean? Would you really want a person to "drive crummy" or "drive wreckless"? I suppose if you just had a fight with someone you may wish them a bad road experience, but the advice to "drive safely", does it really impact the way that I or anyone else will drive? I do not find myself on my way home second guessing my driving decisions simply because my aunt whomever told me to "drive safely".

Anyway, just saw that my blog has not been updated in a while so I thought I would just type out a meaningless rant.

Drive Safe!

EXPELLED

My kid will learn the truth. If not from the school, from his/her parents. I will teach it to him. Some kids don't have the option of a parent to protect them from an agenda. Here is a resource that will mix it up a bit in the scientific world.

This movie looks amazing. Be sure to go and view it. And check out the website for the extended trailer as well.

My First Baptism at Calvary

I had the opportunity recently to do my first baptism here in Calvary E. Free. Very cool and the student getting baptized was VERY excited. Great time!

Don't be Afraid of the Word NO.

I asked on of my students to write a first person point of view of one of the events from my last post titled "FRUIT". Enjoy.

By Kara Dawson
A lot of times we don't ask certain questions because we
are afraid of this little two letter word. That word is 'No.'
Which is not usually the answer we want. That word
tends to prevent so many people from asking questions
for fear that will be the answer. Questions like, "Will you
go on a date with me?" or something more simple, "Will
you go to church with me?" It seems like asking your
friend to go to church with you would be easy. But it isn't
really, because there is that 50/50 chance that the
answer will be that two letter word many of us fear.
I have this friend, she and I are really close. I can ask her
anything. But when it came to asking her if she wanted to
go to church with me, it was a little harder. I finally
decided that I wanted to ask, I wanted to step out of my
"comfort zone" and ask her. I thought about it and the
very worst that could happen was she would say “No.”
Which if you think about it, isn't all that bad. Then I
thought, “The best that could happen, she would say
“Yes!” So I asked her the simple question, "Do you want
to go to church with me?" She replied excitedly, "YES!"
She then told me she had never been to church. Her
family never went and her friends never asked.
The next Wednesday she came over right after school. I
asked her if she wanted to volunteer with me at Friendship
Place before church. She said, "Yeah, that sounds like
fun!" So we did just that. She loved it! Then after that
we went to church! She isn't shy so she played kick ball
with everyone and she had a blast! After youth group was
over and Darin had spoken, she looked at me and said,
"Can I ask that guy if I can have a Bible!" Surprised and
excited I said, "Yes, come here, we will go ask!" She
asked Darin and he went to get one for her. She said to
me that she had never even held a Bible before.
When Darin came back with the Bible, he said she could
only have it if she told him what she thought. She smiled
and said "Okay." He then asked, "Where are you going to
start." She was a little confused, thinking don't you
usually start at the beginning of a book? She replied with,
"ummm, Page 1..." The next day she texted me and
said, “I read Genesis!” I was shocked! She went home
Wednesday night and read the book of Genesis. I asked
her what she thought of it and she said “things made sense
now, the world was created by God!” To tell you the
truth I can't even explain how I felt right then. If I had not
asked her that simple question, "Do you want to go to
church with me?" None of this would have happened! She
now, enjoys reading the bible. She actually said to me one
day when we were hanging out. "Kara, I haven't read the
whole bible yet." I said, "That's okay, You don't need to
feel bad I still haven't read the whole Bible, and I have had
a Bible since before I could read." She was relieved! She
also LOVES volunteering with me at Friendship place,
and she is always excited to go to church with me. All this
happened because I asked the simple question, “Do you
want to go to church with me?”

FRUIT!

In the last couple of weeks I am humbled by how God has used me in the ministry here.

Last week on wednesday night we had our normal night of competition in our gym and worship and lesson up in our Youth center. The lesson was about how we were created to serve, to be involved in the lives of others. I ended with a pretty clear Gospel presentation. Then a girl comes up to me afterwards. She had never been in a church before. One our girls met her in the hospital and invited her to youth group. The both of them had attempted suicide recently and met while in the hospital together. This girl asks me if she can have a bible. I was obviously excited and zipped off to get her one.

When I came back I asked her if she knew where to start reading. She gave me this wierd look and said, "I don't know, I was thinking I would start on page one." I had to laugh. Why do we have to complicate everything. Page 1 is the best place to start.

Several days later i hear through the girl who had invited the guest that they had talked on the phone recenlty and our new bible owner was all excited and said, "Genesis is Awesome. I just read it!" She has had her bible for 3 days and already had read more than some of our churched kids will have read in half a year. then she shows up again to youth group and is taking notes and signing up for our trips and stuff. Amazing.

then last night one of our regular guys invites his friend who he hangs out with all the time and he shows up. He is listening pretty intensly as I talk about how God has created us for a mission and that is to tell others that God wants a relationship with us. Not to talk about religion but relationship. This new kid writes on his form that he would like to hear more about how to begin a relationship with Jesus. HE WANTS TO BE A CHRISTIAN. this is why we do church!

So i know that these two guys are going on a trip to Colorado for a ski weekend so i call the dad this morning who is on the way to the airport to drop them off. I tell him what was on the card. He then takes it from there as they drive. The son (the regular guy here) is sitting in the passenger seat and is hearing all this as dad talks to the friend in the back seat. Then he tells his son that he can tell his story about how and why he is a Christian while they are on this trip. The son says, "yes, I can do that."

So, now one of our sophmores is now on a ski trip with his friend with the mission of telling him how to meet Jesus.

FRUIT!

One girl who knows Jesus but is having some tough issues meets a girl in the hospital and is helping her to find Jesus.

One guy who knows Jesus and is about to share with his friend over a ski weekend and will be helping him find Jesus.

Ordinary, uncomplicated, sincere, this is how it is supposed to be done.

Thanks God for using my talents and words to equip and challenge these students to share you with their friends as they live their life.

Another rambling

Yes, it has been nearly two months since i updated this. I don't blog much. Maybe it is because I don't think much, but i have to think to function or maybe I don't. What if life is all automatic and we could just coast through it. Then there would be no challenge, no purpose, no fun, no responsibility. Would that make our emotions automatic as well? If we did not think could we truly love?

But contrary to all that we, most of us, can think and love because we were made in God's image. Some of us think and love more than others, but we all at some level both think and love. I think therefore I am is only part of it. And that I love is still only part of it. I am loved is a major part of life. I am loved. Loved by my creator. Loved enough to die for.

So, if I am loved, and I can think and express love, why don't I? Or maybe I do, I just think about and love me more than I think about and love my creator. The more I dwell on, love on, think on Him, the more alive I truly am.

bitter sweet

today we said goodbye to our guests from Ecuador that had been staying with us for the Samaritan's Purse Children's Heart Project. Little Ariana who is two years old came to the Mayo Clinic to have heart surgery. Her mother and a translator came as well. They arrived back in Nov. for the surgery. We got to know each other real well and our family grew as we adopted these new friends from another country. they will be greatly missed by my wife and I, but especially by my kids. they became really close over the last several weeks. Now as they are on the plane to go home to their actual family we pray that Ariana will stay healthy and that the reunion with her daddy will be sweet. Sad to see them go, but glad to know they are going home.

Always go fishing with a buddy!

Great movie

You gotta check this movie out. I was at a pre screening of this film and it is a great story. Very moving. Find out how you can support this movie.

The 2:10 to Nowhere

As I was reading through Judges recently I kept thinking back to a verse that almost haunted me with the weight of responsibility and the ball that was dropped by the Israelites lead by Joshua. They went through so much in the years leading up to the conquering of the land. They were taught many things and saw God do amazing and miraculous acts. Things that would be talked about for centuries. Once they were confronted and set back on course after stumbling a bit we read that they served the Lord until they Died (Judges 2:7). Then they bury their great leader which must have been a sad and difficult thing to do. But what follows next is what haunted me.

In Judges 2:10 it says this, “ After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.” How could this be? How could this young generation grow up around parents and grand parents who had seen the great acts of God and not know about them? How could they not know or hear about or be taught how awesome God is and how He helped them conquer lands, win battles, throw down kingdoms. How could this be!?!

Then it hit me. As I looked at the generation of kids around me I asked, “how am I doing at making sure that they know the greatness of our God? Am I living out my faith in front of them so that they will see by my life that God is worth serving? That this thing called the church, the bride of Christ, is truly the hope for the world.”

It is our responsibility as Christ Followers to put it upon ourselves to be sure that this generation follows the God creator not the godless world around them.

In James 2:10 there is another verse that my son recently memorized for AWANA and it speaks about the importance of obedience. “ For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” Another great 2:10 that we as a generation need to communicate to the youth of our day.

It matters not if you are a parent. If you are a Christ follower it is your responsibility, as it says in Titus, to help bring up the young ones in the ways of the Lord so that they will be fit for doing good.

Don’t take the 2:10 to nowhere.

Talk to our Daughters

Saw You At The Pole

This last week was see you at the pole. The worldwide proclamation for prayer around school flagpoles. I Saw God moving in lives of youth all around our city. It all came together when nearly 500 students showed up at our church for a see you at the pole rally / party that night. They were eager to share what had happened and how God used the day to spark many conversations. I had no idea that many would show up. On top of that several stood up to recieve Christ as their savior. What a night. I was impressed, humbled, convicted.

Thanks God. Saw you at the pole. I pray that I will continue to see you in the lives of the youth of Rochester.

It has been one year

It has been one year since I was asked to leave my position of Youth Pastor that I held for 11 years. It sure has been a wild ride. So much has happened to me and for me. I have grown a lot and my family has been cared for in a great way during the process. It was hard to leave a place where we had such deep roots planted but God has a plan. I have been released to do ministry in new ways I didn't know. I have been cared for as a church leader in ways I had not experienced before. I have been invested in, trusted, turned to, sought out and built up this last year, though the first few months were depressing and dark. Thank you God for pushing me and picking me up.

Purge

What drives us? What keeps us fueled up to face the challenges that Life throws at us? How are we growing ourselves? Do we expect others to feed us? Do we expect our bible reading once a month to feed us for the whole month? What do we need and are we willing to go get what we need? Maybe what we need is to PURGE some evil from our lives.

This last month I have been reading through Deuteronomy (Yes, the Old Testament) and I noticed the frequency of the use of the phrase, “Purge the Evil from among you.” This phrase occurs 10 times and one additional time in a different phrasing, “purge from yourselves…” This shows how much God desires his chosen people to be pure and free from Evil. Deuteronomy ends with Moses describing the rewards for obedience and the curses for disobedience. This is a big deal to God. So, how do we do it? How do we keep our way pure? Psalm 119:9-16 says it pretty plainly. The NIV Translation says it this way:

“ 9 How can a young man keep his way pure?    By living according to your word.
 10 I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.
 11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

It really comes down to spiritual disciplines. Have we been taught to feed ourselves? Do we know how to feed ourselves? Have you tasted the Word of God and found it to be good? What we need is to fill ourselves with the fuel that is the Word of God. To know His standard. To know and implement God’s word and commands.

LEARN SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES

God's desire is for His Chosen people to Purge the Evil from among them. How can we do this if we don’t know how? We can clean our houses but if we don’t know how to keep it clean, it will just get all muddied up again and possibly even worse. We need to be taught to keep it clean and then we can and will be a blessing to others.

my old journal

I was looking through an old journal of mine and came across this quote that I wrote down on Dec. 25, 1989.

"Scripture is not a matter of one's interpretation because scripture was not made by an act of human will."

I didn't know I thought so deeply as a 17 year old kid. If you read 2 Peter 1:20-21 you will see the context of this thought. Any reactions?