...of little depth

Well world, In the busyness of ministry I have neglected my blog for much of 2012. I have decided that this blog will no longer just be a place of musings, but a generals summary of what I have been or will be preaching lately. I have rededicated myself to maintaining this blog so that I may add a few positive thoughts to the conversation of life out of the necessity of to be an agent of change.

 So my question for the world today is, Why do we strive to be shallow? Growing up at the end of the X generation and catching the ascent of the millennial generation has left me dealing with same internal conflicts that we all grapple with in this post modern society. I am just as tempted as the next person to blanket complex issues with simple slogans and easily digestible,moderate points of view that makes everyone happy.

Whether it be religion, politics, or any profound social issue, it appears to me that we are more interested with disagreeing with our opponents than finding answers. We are all guilty of this in some way. We passionately trumpet our own opinion of how the world should run with out doing anything about it. We spew hatred towards people who don't see it our way with out giving people good reason to see anything differently. Our culture likes to argue more than finding solutions. We love to spend more time magnifying our differences that searching for similarities. We respond more to negativity and sensationalism than positive synergy.

 I have always enjoyed the well known scripture in 1 Corinthians 13 about love. The scripture states that love is long suffering, kind, non envious,not prideful or puffed up, is not rude, does not rejoice in evil but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. This type of love doesn't fail. We all like to say we love someone, until they do something we don't like. Can we truly say we love people like this? I've made an observation in my evangelical Christian culture and I believe it grieves the heart of God. There is an overwhelming hate of Muslims, liberals, and the LGBT community. I would be the first to say that I disagree with these views or practices ,but I think we forget that Jesus Loved died for them too.


Where is our love for these people? Are we viewing them with the eyes of Jesus? How would Jesus talked to them? How would Jesus handle his disagreement. The Jesus I know ate with sinners, prostitutes,and tax collectors. Guess what, Those sinners,prostitutes, and tax collectors were won over by love and became the beginnings of the Church! If people saw me eating with a group of Muslims or gay people I would be looked upon in a negative way. Is that Biblical? Why can't we find a way to love people who we disagree with? I am grateful for my opportunities to love on people who are different than me.

I once befriended a white supremacist biker at work many years ago. Obviously we saw the world different from each other, and to this day he is probably still a racist but I chose to show him love and we overcame our differences. He cited me as an influence to go to AA and stop drinking. No matter what I accomplish in ministry, this will always be one of the best moments the Lord has given me. Why, Because I got to experience the power of Godly love. The dictionary says the word shallow means "of little depth". Is your love of little depth? What has your love accomplished? The Bible tells us "love never fails" is your love failing? Go love someone!

 BE THE REVOLUTION!

Pastor Joe, How do we figure out exactly what God's will is for our lives?

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.

Trust God and do all you need to do and He will point you in the right direction. He doesn't always show us where we are going, but he always shows us the path or direction. Continue to seek God and you will end up where you need to go :)

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This morning was talking about the laws & grace of God. I understand the laws, but how do u explain the grace part. I'm kinda glad I dont know about having the grace so that I am not one of those who say I have the grace I dont have to tithe

Gods grace is a hard thing to understand because it is so different than human grace. One concept I understand about God is that when He gives us grace its so that we can become something greater. This is not a conditional grace, He doesn't give us grace when we become something greater. If God gives you grace he is giving you the freedom to make better choices and be the person you should be in Him.

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I Will Run

Pray for my family please. They fight ALL the time. I'm 13 and it really upsets me.

I will pray for peace in your family.

The Bible says " Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. Philippians 4:6-7 (MSG)

Know that with God, in the middle of the storm you can still feel peace.

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had a bad day? good for you

So I must say the last 10 days have been extremely challenging for me. As some of you may know I have struggled with clinical depression for much of my life. Depression has such a stigma attached to it but in actuality it is nothing more than low levels of certain brain chemicals. It can be triggered by stress, weather,sickness, or like in my current case nothing at all. Some of you may think "Pastor Joe, don't you have the joy of the Lord" Heck yeah I do! but that doesn't mean you wont go through things mentally, emotionally, or physically from time to time. I am happy that I am depressed.(paradox...I know)

I often tell people to stop running from the things that threaten to destroy them (sickness,sadness,shame,pain, fear,all the bad stuff) things can't chase you unless you are running from them. We must stop running, turn around and stand up to the things that threaten us. When you stand up to bullies you take away there power! I don't have to run from my depression, my depression has to run from me.

I could spend my days suffering from depression but I've decided that my depression will suffer instead. listen people, we are constantly asking God for strength and then wine and complain when he gives us opportunity to prove the strength that he has given us. How do you know you have more strength unless its tested by something heavy.

Is my life darker than usual? yes, so I gotta shine brighter. Does it feel like hard work just to crack a smile? Yes, so I gotta work harder. I am grateful that the Lord sees so much potential in me that he would trust me with this training. Training? yes training. One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Heb 12:10-11 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. You may think this only applies to when we are in the wrong... not so. We get the word discipline from the ancient Greek word paideuo this simply means to correct, educate,and nurture. Do you remember how your favorite coach or teacher would push you to do hard things so that your full potential would be realized. thats what the Lord does in our lives. The end of this passage states that the process is not pleasant, as a matter of fact it is painful. but later, if you learn from it, you will harvest righteousness and peace. According to this passage the Lord does this so that I may share in His holiness!!!

Maybe you never realized this but God uses the most challenging things in our life to make us more like Him. He,Just like your favorite coach or teacher, will constantly push us to higher levels of greatness.

So again, I'm glad I'm depressed. This depression is giving me an opportunity to test out the strength the Lord has blessed me with...Oh, and by the way, I'm doing alright (for being miserable at least). When I felt like this years ago I was constantly thinking about suicide. now, I'm thinking about what new victories lie around the corner. So I will continue to force a smile knowing that an authentic one is on its way :-)

In closing I say this. In God our worst days allow us to make our best days.

The bible says there will be no tears or heartache in heaven...but most of us will have friends and family who don't make it to heaven. How are we supposed to rejoice in that?

Perspective is an interesting thing...I would imagine we would be at peace with the situation because of the perspective we are viewing it from.

Lets be specific In Revelations 21:1-4 the Bible shows how we will be united with the Lord in the new heaven and earth. verse 4 then says:

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

It appears that If they are tears they will be wiped away once and for all never to return.

This is where perspective comes in. If God is all powerful, why wouldn't he have the power to comfort us over our lost loved ones. We would no longer be in the natural world with natural emotions the old order has passed away :)

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