One Person at a Time...

Join us for "Sharing Your Faith" Sunday!

If you have 4 hours to invest in eternity tomorrow, join us at our home (447 Leasureville Road, Cabot, PA 16023), along with Steve Evans, from the Steve Wingfield Evangelistic Association, to learn how to become more effective in sharing your faith in Jesus with others.  Once you're equipped you may even want to join us at the Steve Wingfield Festival and help us encourage and follow up with new believers who respond to Jesus' call on their life at the Festival!

8th Grade Graduation!

Last night was Emmy's 8th grade graduation.  I have to say that I'm a little skeptical about all the graduations folks have these days--preschool, 5th grade, 8th grade-----I've only graduated 4 times in my life and I have a doctorate.  Even so, it was great fun to see Emmy receive the Amercian Legion award for courage, leadership, citizenship, and a couple of other things!  It's so hard to believe that this fall our YOUNGER daughter will be in high school, and the older one a sophomore in college!  Time goes way to fast, but I'm glad for what God is doing in our daughters lives, and for the opportunity to be a part of it!

Tomorrow at New Life!

I'm a little late getting this out, but if  it's before Sunday, June 1 at 10:00 a.m. when you read this, you're definitely going to want to join us at 127 Knoch Road--the site of the church property for our first outdoor worship of the summer!  We'll also be starting our new Back to Basics series "The Sermon on the Mount."  The summer missionaries from New Life will be commissioned for their trips to Mexico and Louisiana. After worship we'll enjoy fellowship together as we have some hot dogs and great food from the folks of New Life.

This will be a great Sunday to be there for sure!

Me or Jesus?

Perry Noble spoke last week at the "Whiteboard Sessions."  His big idea was living God's call in our lives.  I was so impressed that I decided to go to New Spring's website (the church where Perry pastors), and listen to a service.  I listened to May 4, 2008, and the theme was "Me or Jesus."  If you want to be challenged to put JESUS first, and experience an amazing worship service (and have 98 minutes to invest) go to Newspring.com and follow the links.  You'll be glad you invested the time!

I became a Christian...

I read a great book over the weekend by Vince Antonucci!  It's titled I became a Christian and all I got was this lousy t-shirt: Replacing Souvenir Religion with Authentic Spiritual Passion.  The book is a fascinating recounting of Vince's life as a non-believer (the first 20 years of his life!), of how NO ONE ever told him about Jesus, and how after becoming a follower, Vince's life has taken radical twists and turns.

While the book is filled with deep insights, couched in humorous and sometimes downright silly language, the most important point I took from the book was:  Jesus doesn't want to have a relationship with us. He wants us to ABIDE in Him. Vince recounts how he had a great friend, with whom he had a great relationship, and did many things together.  Then the friend moved away.  Despite the great relationship, Vince moved on.  He still calls the friend occasionally, but his life hasn't changed all that much because of the friend's move.  In the same way, if we have a relationship with Jesus, and that's it, then Jesus makes life better when He's "around," but if we get busy and forget to invest in the relationship it doesn't make all that much difference.  But if we are ABIDING in Jesus, that is if we have that "branch-vine" relationship that Jesus calls us to then we are in Him and He is in us.  Then, we can't live without Him!  We probably all know that, but Vince has a way of taking things that we all know and driving the home with powerful stories and illustrations.  Go out, buy it and read it ASAP!  You'll be challenged and changed if you take the book to heart.

Lesson From a Hornet...

Last night I stepped on a hornet in my bare feet.  I thought it was a "pin" or "thumbtack" on the carpeting when I first stepped on it, but then my foot started burning intensely.  I lifted my foot and the hornet's wings were going for all it was worth, but for some reason the stinger was staying attached to it and my foot.  I tried to "flick" it off my foot with my finger, but that didn't work.  I tried shaking it off my foot, but that didn't work.  Finally, I stepped down again and swiped my foot across the carpet.  As I did that another surge of pain went into my foot, but the hornet came loose.  What I couldn't believe was the intensity of the pain for all the more that had happened--a hornet stung my foot.  I've had broken bones that seriously did not hurt as much as that bee sting.  I went out to the refrigerator and got some ice to put on the foot, and even with the ice it swelled to the point that when I walked the middle of my foot--where the bee had stung me hit the floor before the ball of my foot or the heel!  When I got out of bed this morning the swelling had subsided a bit, but not much.

So, what's the point of sharing this minor event?  As I sat with ice on my foot, I thought of how the pain was out of all proportion to the size of the injury.  The situation became an instant analogy:  sin--no matter how "small"--also causes pain out of all proportion to the size of the injury as well.  Given that Scripture tells us that if we keep the law but fail in even ONE part, we are guilty of the whole law, all it takes is one, little "hornet" and we're done.  The Good News is Jesus took ALL of the sins "small" and "large" on Himself when He died on the cross, so we don't have to endure the pain for eternity.  The immediate pain is still there, but the lasting "sting" is gone.  Thanks be to God for that--for Jesus--and His victory over sin and death!

Next time I hope the analogy has something to do with apple dumplings, or strawberry shortcake!

The "60/60 Experiment"!

Last Thursday, Brad and I had the opportunity to attend the "Whiteboard Sessions" in Reston Virginia.  The concept is that 8 of today's leading pastors were given the opportunity to speak for 1/2 an hour on 1 "big idea" for ministry.  You'll be hearing more about this event over the next several days, but one of the speakers, John Burke, who is the lead pastor at Gateway Community Church in Austin, Texas, shared a "sub-idea" he called the "60/60 Experiment."  The idea is for 60 days to stay connected to God every hour by setting a watch (or you could use a cell phone) to beep every 60 minutes -- thus the 60/60.  When the watch beeps simply ask yourself whether you are connected to God, or relying on the Holy Spirit, or any question that will help you focus on staying connected to God. 

I tried it on Friday and Saturday and the results were amazing!  On Saturday the watch beeped at 12:00 p.m. just as I was about to comment on the lawn tractor breaking down, while Emmy was driving it.  The comment immediately changed from something less than helpful, to "Let's see what's wrong and how we can fix it."  At the end of Saturday, Nancy asked me why I was being so nice to her?  Wow!  That's quick results. 

I shared the idea with the people of New Life in worship yesterday morning, and challenged everyone there to try it.  If you weren't there, I'd like to challenge you to try it, too!  I was going to hold off until fall to launch the experiment, but thought, "Why wait to offer such a practical and helpful opportunity to everyone I know!"

A One Year Personal Growth Plan...

On Friday, I ordered a resource from Church Leadership Insights on Time Management, by Nelson Searcy. (From the "regularity" of my blog posts, you may be able to tell that I need it!)  A "bonus download" for purchasing the material was "A One Year Personal Growth Calendar."  It's an hour discussion of how important it is to plan your life a year at a time and to divide the year into 4 "views" and activities. Here they are:      

1. "Abandon Annually"  Schedule vacation time and time for personal growth seminars.
2. "Measure Monthly"   Take time once a month to see whether you plan is actually being implemented.
3. "Withdraw Weekly"  Take a "Sabbath" a day of rest/renewal each week.
4. "Divert Daily"           Take time each day to:  read God's word and pray; do something to stay physically fit, communicate with your spouse if your married and your children if you have them, and to communicate God's love with someone who doesn't know Him! 

                 

When Life Isn't "Normal"...

Have you ever gone through a period when your life wasn't "normal"?  EVERY, SINGLE DAY-- you say?  Isn't that the truth.  So often we strive for a "normal" life, even though we aren't really sure what that means, and then we get frustrated when life isn't "normal."  One of the things the last couple of months has been showing me is that there is no such thing as "normal," and that's OKAY!  In fact, I've always liked the surprises life has thrown at me, because I'm best in situations that call for quick responses.  While a lot of folks aren't all that crazy about being "put on the spot," whether it be through being asked a difficult question, or given a project to complete in an unreasonably short period of time, those are the kind of things that give me a rush.  What doesn't give me a rush is having every day be predictable and the same, and yet, most of the time that seems to be our definition of "normal."  A normal life would contain predictable, daily routine, and everything always turning out the way we hope it will.  Life isn't really like that, though, is it?

My "normal" for the past couple of months has been rather major disruptions to our family's life.  Whether it was the "bad" disruptions of the engine dying on Nancy's car, or Nancy's surgery, or the "good" disruption of Abby coming back home from college for the summer, there have been major blips on the radar screen of our lives.  What I'm recognizing more and more in the midst of these disruptions is that circumstances will never be "normal." What can be "normal" is our walk with Jesus.  When Watchman Nee wrote "The Normal Christian Life," a study in Romans 8, he pointed out that what ought to be "normal" for us as followers of Jesus is a life lived in victory over both sin and death in the power of the Holy Spirit, because of what Jesus did to conquer both sin and death on the cross.  Instead of living in that victory and seeing that as "normal," we often live in defeat and pray that our circumstances will become "normal."  Romans 8 reminds us that all kinds of distractions and disasters may come, but NOTHING can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord!  That's what NORMAL is supposed to be for us.  In the midst of WHATEVER COMES, we can be victorious because Jesus already won the victory.  Only when we recognize--and LIVE--that does life become NORMAL!

Fruit of the Spirit Booklets

Due to a snafu with FedEx Kinkos, (and my not taking a close look at the finished product!) the final booklet in our Fruit of the Spirit Series was NOT available for distribution at worship yesterday.  They ARE now available at the following locations:  The Bridge Outreach Center in Penn Township;  Dave's Country Meats--Route 8, Valencia;  The Matus Company--Main Street, Saxonburg; Dennis/Pat Fecich's home--1032 Carriage Lane, Saxonburg; and my house 447 Leasureville Road, Cabot, PA.  They will also be available in worship next Sunday.  Thanks to WebServant Lisa Johns, they're also available at New Life Link for Fruit of the Spirit: Faithfulness, Gentleness, & Self-Control.  I hope you'll take advantage of this opportunity to grow in the Fruit of the Spirit each day!