Hello all!!

I appreciate the comments and prayers for our camp. We got home from camp yesterday late afternoon and it was an amazing experience!

God really touched lives in both the campers and the staff.

I am downloading some pictures to the computer right now and will be posting highlights/pictures/stories and get back to blogging like normal very soon.

Keep checking back. Thanks for stopping by!

I’ll see you guys soon

To anyone who reads this humble blog…

I am so sorry.

I am ashamed at my lack of consistency in writing. I promise, I will do better.

This coming week, starting Monday, we have our annual Safehouse teen summer camp starting. Currently we have roughly 130 students signed up to attend. So it should be a fun week.

I am going to do my best in a very non-technical campground to blog as much as possible. (There may be several blogs posted via Safari on the ‘ol iPhone).

The theme for camp is WIRED: For A Life of Worship. It’s purpose is to illustrated that our lives are created and designed for the sole purpose of bringing glory and honor to the Father. 

It should be a great week. Lots of fun activities planned. Some killer service ideas and some really great people all equal a life changing week for both the campers and the leaders.

Please pray that we will become small and that God would become big. And that our lives would be used to bring nothing but glory and honor to the Father and Savior.

Again, I promise I’ll write more often.

Thanks for reading. 

Unrealized Service

-How am I serving people?
-How are people serving me?
-How am I serving God?
-How is God serving me? (This question almost makes me cringe to type because I can’t imagine my God serving me, but that’s exactly what He illustrated to us.)

-Don’t let the service you offer that goes unrealized discourage you from continuing to serve.

Dad went on to tell a story about a young girl that he came across at a McDonald’s drive thru window. She used to come to the Safehouse a few years ago and she was so excited to see my dad. She continued to go on and on about how she graduated in the top 8 in her class and had a full ride to Youngstown State University. She said she was just thinking about how she wanted my dad and my mom to come to her open house. She was so excited to see him and tell him about everything going good in her life.

It’s a great example of how we have no idea how our service effects the lives of the people we serve.

-Christ wants to come to our aid.

-We have to realize the power that He carries.

-What am I missing? What has Christ done in and through me that I am unaware of?

-What is Christ doing in me now that I simply do not realize?

-What will happen if I do realize it?

-What are you capable of if you realize the true power of Jesus Christ? 

Matthew 8:23-27
Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

It’s Sunday. It’s time for live blogging of the sermon.

Here we go… 

On this beautiful Monday evening, beneath the rhythms of the song playing through my iTunes playlist, I can faintly hear the quiet sounds of night as it envelopes what was a fantastic day. My room is a mess, it could really use a good cleaning, but instead, I am here on the computer, chatting with some people, listening to music and breezing through amazon.com.

As I was looking, I was thinking, “I should buy some of these books because they will help me be better at my job.” For those of you new to this blog or who may not know me, I’m a pastor. I work everyday with the sole purpose of leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. That is my job, that is my life, it is my mission. I work in an organization that reaches out to a young generation of teenagers in desperate need of hope and someone to trust them and point them to a Creator that not only knows them, exactly where they are, but loves them without a single prerequisite on our part.

I don’t know if you’ve ever had these moments where something “clicks” in you. Like something you’ve always known you’ve known, but you don’t keep in the front of your mind. Today, after our Memorial Day cookout and dessert, my sister and I heard some music plink-plunking down the street. We both immediately knew what it was, it was an ice cream truck driving around our area. We ran inside, got some cash and ran back outside to get ourselves some good ‘ol fashion ice cream treats from a truck. I remember the feeling when I was kid, looking up at what them seemed to be a massive wall of selections. All of which would make my tastebuds dance. I chose the blue-raspberry screwball today. (You know, every one has a gumball at the bottom). Somehow when something clicks, it’s like that feeling you get when you experience something you haven’t experienced in a while. It’s something old, revealed in a new way.

I had a moment like that this evening.

As I was looking at all these titles of books that I was thinking I should read that would help make me better at my job, I got this feeling. Like my Spirit was being talked to, deep in my soul.

I was being asked this question. “Why would you need those books to do your job better? Why don’t you just love people more?”

That’s pretty much how it happened too, not a lot of pomp and circumstance, not some huge “AHA!” or light shining down through my ceiling. It was pretty simple, really. “Why don’t you just love people more?”

I immediately felt like I was almost wasting my time looking at books that had to do with business tips and biographies about successful business men. How would these help me love people?

I know how to love people.

How well am I doing when it comes to loving people?

I need to do better at loving people.

One thing I absolutely need to do is see myself the way my Creator sees me, because He loves me more than I love me. And if I can see how He loves me, then I will see how I can love OTHERS better.

I’m a flawed human being. By flawed, I mean…I mess up a lot. I sin. I screw up. I fail.

Flat.

On.

My.

Face.

—–

Thank.

God.

For.

Grace.

And if a God can love me through all of my screw ups, sins, doubts, fears, failures, short comings, stupid choices and awful consequences, I really have a great example of what it means to love others.

How well do you love people? How are people loving you?

How are you doing at letting other people love you?

The Bible says that God is love.

Period. What else needs said?

Where is our pure devotion to Christ?
What have we allowed to get in the way of our pure and sincere devotion to Christ?

What does the word “devotion” mean? 5 minutes with God each morning, reading my Bible? Of course not!

Devotion is our response to what we add value to. Devotion is what we pour ourselves into and what we allow ourselves to be influenced by.

Have I poured myself into God and allowed myself to be influenced by God?

Devotion = Loyalty.

Have I been loyal to God?

Devotion = A full presence of focus without distraction.

Where is my focus?

My heart is convicted. My focus has been blurred, my desire to glorify God has become something I attempt to do on my own rather than allowing the glory of God to shine through me because of the sacrifice of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The schemes are out there, the traps are set, clear vision is necessary.

Clear vision only comes by gazing, with full devotion, into the eyes of Jesus Christ. Focusing my attention on Him and Him alone. We all move one step at a time. We all live one breath at a time. I need to focus each breath on the amazing grace that sent my Savior, my King, to a cross that He did not deserve to go to so that I can live a life that I fail at daily. A life of freedom and closeness to a God that loves me. Who’s more concerned with my ability to look up to Him each time I fall than He is my ability not to fall.

What is God asking of me?

What is God asking you to do today?

##

What are the schemes we recognize satan is using to separate Christians from God?

-Deception, Distraction, Perversion
-Self-Indulgence
-Complacency, Materialism
-”We pray in situations so that the result of our prayer will benefit us instead of the will of God.” (I think this is a thought provoking statement).
-The scheme that deceives us into thinking we are a weak remnant as followers of Christ.
-Religion.
-Compromise.
-Not speaking the truth. (Not going to a brother/sister when you see them in fault as the Bible instructs).
-Fear. (Absolutely paralyzing).

Fear can hijack our faith.

What do you think?

-”The early church was in the homes.”

-Today we’re going to practice the old church culture. We’re going to work together to answer some questions and we are going to help preach the message today.

-Satan is deceiving people. He is attempting to deceive even the elect of God. We live in a culture and economy that is ever changing.

-When we think that our life is so geared towards prosperity, we need to remember that we live in a fickle, ever changing environment. We need to ask, where is God in our lives in the midst of our current situation? How do we rely on Him now? Because if we don’t rely and trust on Him now, will we trust Him in the storm?

-Ephesians 6:10-13

-Question: What are the schemes that we recognize Satan is using to separate people from God?