On Sunday I preached on Psalm 15 as part of our series through the first book in the Psalms entitled "The Spiritual Life." In Psalm 15 the main point as it applies to us today is "Acceptance by a holy God requires holiness." If you would like to listen to the sermon click here.
By God's Grace, Jeff
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Bully Sticks Rock
So I think I mentioned last week that from about 7-9pm each night our cute, cuddly puppy Lewis transforms into "Lewis-a-fur," a wound up, jumping and biting terror. The only remedy that we have discovered to calm him down is the "bully stick." Bully sticks are a hard, smelly, "Slim Jim" looking treat that (as I understand) are made from bull's testicles. And dogs go crazy for them. In addition we've started taking him for walks around the neighborhood that seem to help as well. If anyone has additional advice about how to deal with a rambunctious pooch let me know.
On Saturday my wife and I drove over to Turtle Lake (15 miles east) for their annual "Turtle Days" celebration that includes turtle races. For a town of only around 400 residents I think they had about 250 turtles registered to race. They "ran" them in heats of about 8 from a round starting gate that was raised and the first two turtles that cross a chalk drawn white circle about 15' from the start advanced to the next round. There were large turtle and small ones, fast turtles and ones that decided to remain in their shells long after the starting gate had been raised. We only stayed for a half dozen heats or so but it was fun to enjoy another aspect of small town life.
Sunday night we had a deacon and elder meeting and spent a good deal of time talking about our church's financial situation. Please pray for wisdom for myself, the elders and deacons as we seek to addresses some issues regarding our expenses and income. Also, please pray specifically for me to grow in my leadership of this congregation. After the meeting I felt like there were numerous things that I should have done and said differently. Pray that I would truly entrust God with both the church's and our family's finances. I struggle with thinking I can control these myself instead of giving them wholly over to God's sovereign, loving care.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) our congregation will be participating in the first of two "Prayer Walks." We'll be dividing up into groups and walking around Underwood, stopping at each block to pray for the community, businesses and revival. Please pray for good weather, good turnout and that God would hear our prayers and answer them according to His perfect will.
By God's Grace, Jeff
On Saturday my wife and I drove over to Turtle Lake (15 miles east) for their annual "Turtle Days" celebration that includes turtle races. For a town of only around 400 residents I think they had about 250 turtles registered to race. They "ran" them in heats of about 8 from a round starting gate that was raised and the first two turtles that cross a chalk drawn white circle about 15' from the start advanced to the next round. There were large turtle and small ones, fast turtles and ones that decided to remain in their shells long after the starting gate had been raised. We only stayed for a half dozen heats or so but it was fun to enjoy another aspect of small town life.
Sunday night we had a deacon and elder meeting and spent a good deal of time talking about our church's financial situation. Please pray for wisdom for myself, the elders and deacons as we seek to addresses some issues regarding our expenses and income. Also, please pray specifically for me to grow in my leadership of this congregation. After the meeting I felt like there were numerous things that I should have done and said differently. Pray that I would truly entrust God with both the church's and our family's finances. I struggle with thinking I can control these myself instead of giving them wholly over to God's sovereign, loving care.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) our congregation will be participating in the first of two "Prayer Walks." We'll be dividing up into groups and walking around Underwood, stopping at each block to pray for the community, businesses and revival. Please pray for good weather, good turnout and that God would hear our prayers and answer them according to His perfect will.
By God's Grace, Jeff
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Fools Hope in Themselves; the Wise Hope in God
In our current sermon series "The Spiritual Life," through the first book in Psalms, this past Sunday I preached Psalm 14 and the main point as I saw it applying to us today is "Fools hope in themselves; the wise hope in God." If you would like to listen to it, click here.
By God's Grace, Jeff
By God's Grace, Jeff
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
How Far is the East from the West?
Jesus can you show me just how the far the east is from the west
'Cause I can't bear to see the man I've been rising up in me again
In the arms of your mercy I find rest
'Cause you know just how far the east is from the west
One scarred hand to the other
- Casting Crowns "East to West"
Of Boxes and Ice-Cubes
So I don't know why we bought toys for our goldendoodle puppy when his favorites seem to be towels, cardboard boxes and ice-cubes. He's gone through at least two "Amazon.com" boxes already and is currently working on two more (one upstairs and one downstairs). Fortunately being a pastor and bibliophile we have plenty of boxes to keep him occupied for awhile. And he enjoys knocking an ice-cube across our linoleum floors until it melts enough to eat.
The sleep situation has been trying but last night he slept through the night, so let's hope this is a trend. For a couple hours each day he also turns into "Lewis-a-fer" and is wound-up and out-of-control. Hopefully this is just a puppy thing and he'll grow out of it.
Having a puppy in our home for just over a week now has already greatly change our daily routine. Instead of being able to enjoy time together whenever we want, we're at the mercy of the dog's schedule. I went ahead and reduced our monthly Netflix from 3 at a time to 2 because we've realized that it's now taking us twice as long to make it through a movie. Ah the joys of owning a dog!
I wish I had more to blog about but Lewis is pretty much taking up most of our time.
By God's Grace, Jeff
The sleep situation has been trying but last night he slept through the night, so let's hope this is a trend. For a couple hours each day he also turns into "Lewis-a-fer" and is wound-up and out-of-control. Hopefully this is just a puppy thing and he'll grow out of it.
Having a puppy in our home for just over a week now has already greatly change our daily routine. Instead of being able to enjoy time together whenever we want, we're at the mercy of the dog's schedule. I went ahead and reduced our monthly Netflix from 3 at a time to 2 because we've realized that it's now taking us twice as long to make it through a movie. Ah the joys of owning a dog!
I wish I had more to blog about but Lewis is pretty much taking up most of our time.
By God's Grace, Jeff
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Confessing Sin & God's Presence
...why is it so much eaiser to confess sins to God than to your pastor? Why is there more shame when another sinful human being observes my weakness than when I pronounce them before an all-holy God? Could it be because God's presence is so weak in our lives? If we truly understood and cherished the beauty and holiness of God, we would shake a little bit more when approaching him." (From "Sacred Marriage" by Gary Thomas)
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Get "Crazy Love" FREE
Recently I have been reading the book "Crazy Love" by southern California pastor Francis Chan and it has really challenged my life and faith. Then this morning I found out Christianaudio.com is offering the audio recording of this book for FREE this month. If you're interested (and I highly recommend it!) click here for the details. For more on this book check out the clip below.
By God's Grace, Jeff
By God's Grace, Jeff
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