A couple weeks ago I preached on Psalm 13 in our current sermon series through the first book in the Psalms entitled "The Spiritual Life." The main point I saw in Psalm 13 as it relates to us today is that "God's past faithfulness answers our present questions." If you'd like to listen to the sermon, you can do so by clicking here.
By God's Grace, Jeff
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Black Hills/Minot Vacation
My wife and I returned recently from a week of vacation with her folks to the Black Hill area of South Dakota. We toured historic Deadwood, visited the Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse monuments, and drove through the beautiful Black Hills countryside, including the Needles Highway. In addition we tasted wine at the Prairie Berry Winery in Hill City and went on a behind-the-scenes tour to see how Black Hills gold is made. Except possibly for the long hours in the car we had a great trip.
Then this past Saturday, my wife and I drove up to Minot, stayed at a wonderful B&B, went out to dinner and a movie, attended the worship service at Trinity Evangelical Free Church, walked around the zoo and picked up our new puppy before returning home (see previous post). It was a very nice getaway for the two of us.
By God's Grace, Jeff
Introducing Lewis
On Sunday afternoon, my wife and I picked up our new puppy "Lewis." He's a male goldendoodle who has black wavy hair that may eventually turn silver. He's named after Meriwether Lewis (of Lewis and Clark fame, who wintered in our area of ND in 1704 and 1706) and Christian author C.S. Lewis (of "Mere Christiniaty" and "The Screwtape Letters" fame). We'll keep you updated.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Busy Weekend of Ministry
Thursday through Saturday was the McLean County Fair. Our church hosted a booth in which we offered a free carnival ball toss game for kids. Members of the church put together a wonderful game board that received numerous compliments and made for an attractive booth display. I worked the booth on Thursday afternoon and Friday evening. Attendance at the fair seemed quite good this year as we had great weather and a legitimate carnival in town. At our booth kids tossed balls into three different holes in the game board. If in five tries they made one in each hole they could choose a prize, otherwise they received either a super bouncy ball or blowing bubbles.
One funny story: A 3-4 years-old girl who was showing some animals with her siblings kept coming up to the booth and asking "Watcha Doing?" When it was slow we let her play the game even though she'd already won a prize. Finally, her sister came by and said (I kid you not), "Sally, come on, time to go water pigs." Maybe it's because I'm a city boy but I find the phrase "water pigs" hilarious (by the way, it means give the pigs water to drink).
Then on Sunday our church hosted a "Worship-in-the-Park" and community BBQ event. Instead of our normal service we held our service outdoors at one of the parks in town and invited people to join us for the worship service and BBQ afterward. We had three families from the community join us and we had a beautiful day for this event. Please pray that we might be able to get these families plugged into the church. And we had tons of good food!
And yesterday I was planning on spending a relaxing day at home but instead got roped into helping one of the ranchers in our church put in new fence. He had me start by tromping through a field swinging a measuring tool the size of half a rod (8' 3") marking off distances. Then I drove the ATV while Dan dug holes with a post hole digger on the back of a tractor. We through some old railroad ties on the back of his pick-up and stuck them in the holes for posts. The hard part was tamping down the ground in the holes using an old drive shaft. Fortunately after the first two, a storm system came through and so that ended our work for the day.
My wife's parents are coming into town this weekend and after the service on Sunday we'll be heading down to the Black Hills in South Dakota for vacation. Then a week from Sunday (God willing) my wife and I will be able to pick up our goldendoodle puppy north of Minot!
By God's Grace, Jeff
One funny story: A 3-4 years-old girl who was showing some animals with her siblings kept coming up to the booth and asking "Watcha Doing?" When it was slow we let her play the game even though she'd already won a prize. Finally, her sister came by and said (I kid you not), "Sally, come on, time to go water pigs." Maybe it's because I'm a city boy but I find the phrase "water pigs" hilarious (by the way, it means give the pigs water to drink).
Then on Sunday our church hosted a "Worship-in-the-Park" and community BBQ event. Instead of our normal service we held our service outdoors at one of the parks in town and invited people to join us for the worship service and BBQ afterward. We had three families from the community join us and we had a beautiful day for this event. Please pray that we might be able to get these families plugged into the church. And we had tons of good food!
And yesterday I was planning on spending a relaxing day at home but instead got roped into helping one of the ranchers in our church put in new fence. He had me start by tromping through a field swinging a measuring tool the size of half a rod (8' 3") marking off distances. Then I drove the ATV while Dan dug holes with a post hole digger on the back of a tractor. We through some old railroad ties on the back of his pick-up and stuck them in the holes for posts. The hard part was tamping down the ground in the holes using an old drive shaft. Fortunately after the first two, a storm system came through and so that ended our work for the day.
My wife's parents are coming into town this weekend and after the service on Sunday we'll be heading down to the Black Hills in South Dakota for vacation. Then a week from Sunday (God willing) my wife and I will be able to pick up our goldendoodle puppy north of Minot!
By God's Grace, Jeff
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Confidence in the Midst of Crisis
This Sunday I preached on Psalm 11 in our series "The Spiritual Life." The main point of Psalm 11 as I saw it relating to us today is providing us "Confidence in the midst of Crisis" through the refuge of faith in Christ. If you would like to listen to the sermon, click here.
By God's Grace, Jeff
By God's Grace, Jeff
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
June Snow Showers bring July...
This past weekend was cold. We went to Bismarck on Saturday and it rained the whole time we were there. We were planning on attending a classic car show but it was canceled due to the rain. The high temperature for the day in Bismarck was 47 degrees. On June 6th the "high" was below 50! In fact, closer to the Montana border some places in ND has up to three inches of snow! Sunday wasn't a whole lot warmer and we're just starting to more in the right direction. In case you're thinking that this is normal for North Dakota, our average this time of year is 75. And as my wife asked, "If May showers bring June flowers, what will June snow bring?"
Well, we are getting things ready for the arrival of our puppy later this month. For those of you who haven't heard, we're getting a goldendoodle puppy. This breed is a mix between a golden retriever and a poodle. I have some allegories to dog dander and poodle coats are less shedding and therefore produce less dander. So while we were in Bismarck on Saturday we picked up (hopefully) all of the basics we need in order to welcome our new pet into our home.
On Saturday and Sunday (since I couldn't do much outside) I enjoyed watching Tiger Woods storm back from 4 back at the Memorial golf tournament to win by one stroke; birding the last two holes and being helped by a unexpected eagle chip-in on the backside. The most exciting aspect of his tournament was hitting every fairway on Sunday and only missing a handful total. I agree with Jack Nicholas; if Tiger drives like that, everyone else is playing for second.
My wife and I have been watching old seasons of "The Amazing Race" this summer. We've enjoyed picking teams at the beginning of the season and rooting them on to victory. But I've also been "amazed" at how the stress of competition brings out people's sins. Couples yelling at each other and friends bickering are not a result of the race but a revealing of what's already in their hearts. The race is merely the arena that the sins in their hearts show themselves.
Please pray for our booth at the County Fair this weekend and our Worship-in-the-Park and community BBQ this Sunday.
By God's Grace, Jeff
Well, we are getting things ready for the arrival of our puppy later this month. For those of you who haven't heard, we're getting a goldendoodle puppy. This breed is a mix between a golden retriever and a poodle. I have some allegories to dog dander and poodle coats are less shedding and therefore produce less dander. So while we were in Bismarck on Saturday we picked up (hopefully) all of the basics we need in order to welcome our new pet into our home.
On Saturday and Sunday (since I couldn't do much outside) I enjoyed watching Tiger Woods storm back from 4 back at the Memorial golf tournament to win by one stroke; birding the last two holes and being helped by a unexpected eagle chip-in on the backside. The most exciting aspect of his tournament was hitting every fairway on Sunday and only missing a handful total. I agree with Jack Nicholas; if Tiger drives like that, everyone else is playing for second.
My wife and I have been watching old seasons of "The Amazing Race" this summer. We've enjoyed picking teams at the beginning of the season and rooting them on to victory. But I've also been "amazed" at how the stress of competition brings out people's sins. Couples yelling at each other and friends bickering are not a result of the race but a revealing of what's already in their hearts. The race is merely the arena that the sins in their hearts show themselves.
Please pray for our booth at the County Fair this weekend and our Worship-in-the-Park and community BBQ this Sunday.
By God's Grace, Jeff
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
First Round of the Season
My wife had a library conference in Minot on Friday so another pastor from town and I got in 18 holes. It was my first round of the season (although I did golf some in April while in LA). I shot very well for barely having picked up a golf club in nearly nine months. I shot 54 through the first nine and 47 from 10-18 (with back-to-back pars) for a grand total of 101. My goal is to shoot consistently under 100 so I'd say I'm not too far away from that. I even had to take one shot left-handed as my ball was in the well of a tree. Fortunately I began golfing left-handed since my Dad's a lefty and Pastor Dean carries a left-handed club in his bag for times like these. We had fun (except for the mosquitoes) and it was a good break from sermon prep.
Well keeping with the sports theme, on Sunday I made it back out to the school gym for pick-up basketball. There were at least 16 guys this week as we were able to run two games of 4 on 4. There were also quite a few tall, fast and athletic players there (things I am not). My strengths lie in being a smart defender, opportunistic scorer, decent 3-point shooter and above average rebounder. Even though I'm certainly not one of the better players out there, I'm able to contribute and I enjoy a good challenge. Of course, after being off for two weeks whatever legs I had gained from playing earlier this spring were all but gone. I was already pooped after the first game from having to chase a high school age guard up and down the floor.
I am getting excited about our church's summer events. Next weekend we'll have a booth at the McLean County Fair and we'll host a free carnival game for kids. Our goal is to build good will in the community, show that we're here to serve them for Jesus and engage community members in spiritual conversations. Then next Sunday we're hosting a summer kick-off worship-in-the-park and community BBQ. I'm amazed at how many people from the congregation have already signed-up to contribute toward this event and took fliers to pass out to friends, neighbors and co-workers. In July we're planning some prayers walks around the community and in August will have a booth at Harvest Fest and possibly an end of the summer worship-in-the-park. It will be a busy summer and God-willing productive.
By God's Grace, Jeff
Well keeping with the sports theme, on Sunday I made it back out to the school gym for pick-up basketball. There were at least 16 guys this week as we were able to run two games of 4 on 4. There were also quite a few tall, fast and athletic players there (things I am not). My strengths lie in being a smart defender, opportunistic scorer, decent 3-point shooter and above average rebounder. Even though I'm certainly not one of the better players out there, I'm able to contribute and I enjoy a good challenge. Of course, after being off for two weeks whatever legs I had gained from playing earlier this spring were all but gone. I was already pooped after the first game from having to chase a high school age guard up and down the floor.
I am getting excited about our church's summer events. Next weekend we'll have a booth at the McLean County Fair and we'll host a free carnival game for kids. Our goal is to build good will in the community, show that we're here to serve them for Jesus and engage community members in spiritual conversations. Then next Sunday we're hosting a summer kick-off worship-in-the-park and community BBQ. I'm amazed at how many people from the congregation have already signed-up to contribute toward this event and took fliers to pass out to friends, neighbors and co-workers. In July we're planning some prayers walks around the community and in August will have a booth at Harvest Fest and possibly an end of the summer worship-in-the-park. It will be a busy summer and God-willing productive.
By God's Grace, Jeff
Perceptions of the Wicked vs. Realities of God
In our ongoing series through the first 41 psalms entitled "The Spiritual Life," this past Sunday I preached through Psalm 10. The main point as I saw it relating to us today is in contrasting the faulty perceptions of the wicked versus the true realities of God. Even when God seems distant we must remind ourselves of the truth about God instead of falling for the lies of sin. If you would like to listen to the sermon, click here.
By God's Grace, Jeff
By God's Grace, Jeff
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