Truth and Grace Above All Else

Joshua Study Two I think it’s important to note that Joshua did not have time to celebrate his promotion. Why? Because he was the right man for the job and that job needed to be done. That’s why people get promotions. For instance, in business, a man gets promoted into the office of “Head of Marketing.” It is then expected by the company for him to get going. To dive into the job and make things work. Even if it is just to ensure that what is currently being done continues. Which brings us to our life in Christ. Many times we are brought into a “new season” with Jesus. He has worked with us to bring our maturity and spiritual wisdom to a place where we can do more than just warm a pew in church. Does that mean we won’t make mistakes? Of course not. Try to remember that at no point in our life is God un-aware of what we will do in the future. Take the act of disobedience in the Garden of Eden for example. God was not happy that his new creations disobeyed Him. But H...

Young to old There is a common disconnect between ages: Trust of younger generations. Passing things on to younger generations seems to be what determines the affluence of a society. The burden most often falls to teachers, but this is a burden which should be shouldered by all. All of us have something to teach a word craving knowledge and opportunity. Pastors have their congregations to tend, leaders have their followers to lead, and parents have their children to raise. Somewhere in the timeline of it all though there is a disconnect that places an unseen burden upon the younger generation to perform to standards that have never been established.   To the elderly The weight of leadership is a heavy one to carry, but it was never meant to rest upon one persons shoulders forever. In wisdom, grace and truth may you teach us to be leaders and not scald us for not knowing what we do wrong in your eyes. Words unspoken are never conveyed and the divide between brother...

A cup of coffee I have an obsession. Some people like to watch their favorite football team on certain days. Some people like to listen to music without ceasing. Others prefer to draw a world that once only existed in their minds, but me, I am obsessed with coffee. There, I said it. Those dark caramel colored magical beans produce liquid that cheers the eyes and the soul. I could talk about the science of why this magical bean juice makes me happy, but that is a conversation for another day. What I want to talk about today is how the elegance of a cup of coffee gives us an example of what it means to be intentional with our lives. Select your method From pour over to french press to the traditional brew, there are tons of ways to make coffee, but we are not here to discuss the nuances of brewing coffee. I want to use different methods of brewing coffee as a metaphor for how you are choosing to serve others.   Brew it This is what most consider the method o...

A growing hunger to know Him better On Christmas day of 2017 I began a three day journey of fasting from food. Please understand that I drank lots of water throughout the three days in order to stay hydrated. This is similar to another three day fast from 2016. You might wonder what the significance of this fast was or why someone would even subject themselves to something so harsh. There are multiple reason why fasting is such an integral part of my life:  1. It teaches us to remember the things in life that are more important then walking to the fridge and pulling out our favorite snack and mindlessly eating.  2. When you are hungry, you are more focused. During this time of being hungry, reading my Bible in replacement of my meals brought me true comfort and peace.  3. We are to be in this world, but not of it. If you ever want to get your friends or coworkers to ask questions about why you are not eating, this will surely help you do that! (Tip: This is...

Daily involvement with God's word Galatians 5:17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.  Our flesh is constantly at odds with what the Spirit wants, therefore we need to daily offer up ourselves in service of God so as to recognize that our bodies are not our own, but the Father's. Luke 9:23 says, "Then he said to them all: 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.'". We must make a choice on a day to day basis to give up our sinful desires and live a life devoted to Him. Form habits that are uncomfortable Even though I am an extrovert and love talking to new people, it is hard to share my faith sometimes. There are habits that I have tried to form over the last few years to help with my shortcomings in this aspect of ministry though. The first is wh...

The New Year Lie A new year has come, fads....I mean resolutions have been made, and change is in the air. Sure, the new year is a significant and almost all to popular time to create the new you, but I would ask why you hadn't already started on creating the new you when you first saw the problem? Is it because you wanted to set some significant date at which you turned your life around? Maybe that is the case, but I see this as a being a follower and not a leader. You should already be making choices for the good as a leader, not relying on others to tell you what to do.  Change should come when you see the need for it When I stepped on the scale last year and saw the number read 300, I was no longer in denial about what needed to happen. My health is important to me and it was in the moment that I knew change was no longer an afterthought, but rather my first thought. I began to become introspective about my choices and what each and every one of them did to me. This i...

The Best and Worst Feeling When you think of waiting, what comes to mind? Maybe waiting in line at the grocery, waiting for a break in the rain so you can run to your car, waiting for the bus to arrive, waiting for the light to turn green, waiting for those last few seconds of the school day to be over, but no matter what you are waiting for there is going to be something to follow.  The Worst Feeling The phone rings and you see the hospital is calling. You have been waiting to hear the results of the tests. You hear what the doctor says and your face goes blank. Tears well up and your heart sinks. This was not what you wanted to hear, but after all this time your worst fears are confirmed.  You open your email and see the name of the company you applied to months ago. Emotions begin to stir inside of you and you click to open it. You read out loud what you hope you want to hear until you say, "...sorry...".  He said it was a large fire and that he would ...

Things that stick with you If you have ever met me in person, you have most likely seen me chugging water out of one of my many water bottles. These bottles carry different meanings to me because of the different places each one of them have been with me. I guess you could call it nostalgia, but I like to think that each one of them has character of it's own because of each of the scratches, dents and scuffs that they have. What really makes each one of my bottles unique though is that each one has a sticker or stickers from events or places that I have been with that bottle. One of my favorite water bottles has stickers on it from when I traveled overseas to Scotland and Ireland. That bottle carries many memories of travel and the stories of three summers spent traveling around Michigan. The sticker from Scotland takes me back to walking the streets of Edinburgh, eating haggis for the first time and having my eyes opened to how much larger this world really is.   The ...

Growth needs to be directed and maintained Having a few different hobbies keeps me very busy. Thankfully most of my hobbies require little to no effort to enjoy, except one. By far the most time consuming and enjoyable hobby that I take part in is growing bonsai trees. Yes, I know what you are probably thinking right now, "Oh, like Mr. Miyagi?". Yes, bonsai trees were popularized by the movie The Karate Kid , but that is not the reason I became fascinated with these almost whimsical plants.  I was browsing my Facebook feed one day and came across an image of a man holding a clay pot in the palm of his hand. Inside of that pot was a small tree that looked as though it was well aged and had a thick trunk to show how old it was. I became awestruck by this image and was captivated to the point of going crazy  over the other images I found of these delicate and beautiful plants. So about three years ago, I purchased a small kit to grow a tree from seed.  The pa...

Under Water Sharks in the water If you were to ask my mom how much I enjoy being in the water, she would say something to the effect of, "He is a fish.". Needless to say, I love swimming and being in the water on a hot summer day. I loved the water so much that one time I spent a little to much time in my backyard pool one afternoon. I ended up with a lobster red back and could not sleep on my back for two days. That was not fun, but that is not the story I came here to tell you today. The story that I want to tell you is about how my innocent game of playing a shark nearly ended tragically.  During my teenage years, I took every opportunity to go on little trips with my church's youth group. One of my favorite trips during the end of the summer was going to a water park for the day. Being the fish that I am, this was a blast for me. It also let me release my inner kid while I was splashing friends left and right. As a group, we would typically go on the wat...

Up above it all In my high school years I went to more camps then Yogi Bear in search of a picnic basket. These were not just camp grounds with smelly toilets and tents though, these were camp grounds with high ropes courses, mountain biking, giant swings, lakes and a ton of other fun activities. It was a paradise for me to test my limits and face my fears head on. I only had a few fears in my teenage years: The fear of not impressing the lady folk, the fear of accepting a dare that I really shouldn't have and the fear of heights. Of all of those fears, the last one could stop me in my tracks. I didn't become an ice cube of fear or anything, but I had an extremely difficult time getting past the fact that I could fall to my death at any second. I was not the kind of kid to pass up an awesome opportunity though. If I did, I knew I would regret it for a very long time. So instead of saying no, I said yes. Even if it freaked me out.  I woke up in my bunk to the smell ...

Boom When I was younger, I was obsessed with army men, tanks and things that went boom. I loved the Fourth of July. Me and my brother would walk almost a mile one way to the only gas station in our town to buy fireworks with change we had collected. Once I had used up most of the change I had collected, I would use my money from doing chores around the house. I didn't understand the concept of throwing away my money back then, but I think when you are eight to twelve years old, you don't really care about the value of money, you just care how much it can buy you. A dollar could buy me five packs of those snapper things that you throw on the ground and they make a sharp pop. Me and my brother would have competitions to see how many of these snappers we could throw in one handful in order to get the coolest noise off the surface of our driveway. I think we set an unofficial record of five boxes in one handful. It was cool for the second that it lasted for all of them to hit ...

The sickness When I was younger my parents would often tell me and my brother that we needed to go outside when it was summer time and enjoy the weather instead of playing video games all day. Most often times when me and my brother would go outside, we would pick up the sandy dirt clumps that often could be found in farmers fields that lay fallow and would act like they were grenades. We would lay on the ground in a grassy field and toss them over our heads into the dry field. Just like the guys in the movies did when they were in a bunker fighting off an enemy. The obvious sound effects associated with war movies were obligatory to tossing one of these dirt ball grenades. Some times if we got really bored with that we would start throwing them at each other to see who could take the most dirt grenades to the shirt or pants without mom noticing where we had been.  When winter time came around the same sort of scene unfolded, only this time, we had forts of snow and an alm...

What is that ahead? I live in a small town which contains a gas station, a Co-Op, a Post office, a golf course and two bars. Needless to say, there is not much to do there. This forces me to trek across the county line to a larger city that I have grown very fond of in the past eighteen years. It has coffee shops, restaurants, entertainment, my home church and many other things that make it a place I enjoy spending my time. This town is located about twenty minutes from my house and I feel like could have worn a path into the highway between my home and there by now if they did not repave the road.  Most often times I space out during the seemingly mandatory drive to and from my home. I might listen to music or enjoy the silence, but for the most part nothing exciting happens going to and fro. Sometimes when I am driving home in the dark I hope to see a massive meteorite plummet to the earth right in front of me just to I can say I was there to witness it, but sadly that has...