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Please Pray For Me!

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For the past several months, God has been teaching me a lot about Himself and the amazing love that He has for me!  It is a very humbling thing when you begin to realize and gain understanding of this most incredible reality!  I have always known that God loves me, but in recent days it has become more than knowing.  The experience of God-loving me has become more powerful and more real than I have ever known it before.  It is absolutely awesome to be loved by Him.  I cannot even come close to coming up with adequate words to try to explain to you what I am talking about – simply amazing!

This is where I need your prayer help/support! I want to love God back!  I don’t just want to say that I love Him back.  I want to really love Him back – with the most incredible, powerful and pure love that I can come up with.  I feel so inadequate.  Pray for me – that I will totally open up my heart and life to receive all that God has for me and that I will stay open, so that His love may flow to and through my life.  It does not matter if you understand what I am talking about – just pray that I will love God back -more and better than I ever have before.

I want to love my wife and children! I love them, but they deserve so much more and I want to be the man of God that can give it to them.  Pray that I will be the loving husband that God created me to be and that I will love my wife as Jesus loved the church!  Pray that I will love my children with the “Father Love” that the Heavenly Father loves me with!

I want to love my congregation! One of the amazing things about God’s love is that even when I mess up – He still loves me.  God’s love for me is not based upon what I do or do not do!  He loves me, simply because He is love!  Pray that I will love the congregation of people who He has blessed me with the opportunity of teaching and leading with a sacrificial and restorative love!

I want to love my family and friends! God has been very good to bless me with an incredible family and some amazing friends.  I have tried to be there for them and tried to love them, but I know that I can and should do better.  Pray that God will help me to love them with a deeper, purer and more unselfish love!

I want to love strangers and enemies! I know that I honor God when I love the un-loveable, so pray that God will help me to love others as He loves me – with an unconditional and unselfish love!

Thanks for reading today and thanks for praying for me! The bottom line:  I want to be a Mark 12:30 Christian and love God with all of my heart, all of my soul and all of my mind!  I do love you and with your prayers and with God’s help – I will love God and you in an even greater way in the days ahead!

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Be Yourself And Enjoy It!

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I am not your normal pastor/preacher! To those of you that know me, that is no grand revelation!  I love God, His Church and People!  I try really hard to not be judgmental.  I know that I am a sinner saved by grace and that I have more than my share of challenges and struggles.  A lot of the new friends that I am making find it hard to believe that I am a pastor/preacher.  They have never known a pastor/preacher like me that is actually human and honest about his struggles, frustrations and yes even sins!

I have not always been this way. There was a time when I gave into the mold that traditional church people will often try to force you into.  My hair was alway perfectly parted to the side, my face was always cleanly shaven and I had a perfect collection of suits and ties to fit every occasion.  (Casual to me was a pair of khaki pants and a button down shirt!)  There is nothing wrong with any of these things and I still from time to time wear the suit, show off the baby face and sport the very conservative side part – this is a part of who I am, but only a very small and limited part.  I tried to look perfect and actually began to believe that since I looked it, then I must be!  (We should know better!)

Read this passage from 1 Corinthians 9:19-22 19.)  Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.  20.) To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.  21.) To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law.  22.) To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.

I am learning to just be me and I have to tell you – it feels pretty good! Let me encourage you to spend some time with God and discover who He has made you to be and then enjoy being the you that He created you to be!  God loves you and has an amazing plan for your life – don’t let life and other people mess you up, drag you down and keep you from experiencing God’s blessing – just be the best you that He created you to be!

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A Page From My Journal!

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This is a page out of my personal journal that might help you to know my heart a little better.  I hope that it will be a blessing and encouragement!

I know that God desires to do great things in and through our lives!  I know that He wants to and is willing to use me to help grow others.  I know that the blessing and fulfillment in my life and the life of my family comes from God’s activity with, to and through me.

God is teaching me that I cannot do the things that He is calling me to do by myself.  There must be a team!  This team starts with my family and their willingness to understand and remind themselves of the High Calling that God has placed upon my life.

It is no small thing to be called, gifted and equipped by God to do something that is bigger than yourself, bigger than what I am able to dream or imagine.  This is the work that I believe that God has called me to and words cannot even come close to describing or explaining it!

There must be a supporting team of staff – paid and volunteer that will walk with me, trusting that I am trusting God.  Personal agendas must be laid aside for the pure pursuit of God’s prize!

I cannot do all that God has created me for without the help, assistance, support and encouragement of a congregation of growing and developing Believers!  This world can be impacted by our faith!  But it must be a real and genuine faith that changes our lives first and then the world.

I love God with all of my heart – I cannot exactly explain why – I just do!  And the great desire of my life is to live for Him, serve Him and do whatever I can to give Him pleasure.  I believe that the best way for me to accomplish this goal is with and through His Bride – The Church.

May His hand continue to guide my life, select my goals, develop my strategy and bring real and powerful blessings into all of our lives!