THANKS, Veterans!

Today is one of the days throughout a calendar year to say THANKS to those who have trained, served, and fought in the military for the freedom of our great country!

Enjoy the freedom, as the cliche goes, freedom is not free it costs lives. Even our spiritual freedom was paid for with a price.

This song is one of my favorites that never gets old. I'm including the lyrics for you to read and enjoy. You can hear it on YouTube or a number of other places.

THANKS, VETERANS! I appreciate all you've done!

God Bless The USA

by Lee Greenwood

If tomorrow all the things were gone, I’d worked for all my life.
And I had to start again, with just my children and my wife.

I’d thank my lucky stars, to be livin here today.
‘Cause the flag still stands for freedom, and they can’t take that away.

And I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up, next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land, God bless the USA.

From the lakes of Minnesota, to the hills of Tennessee.
Across the plains of Texas, From sea to shining sea.

From Detroit down to Houston, and New York to L.A.
Well there's pride in every American heart, and its time we stand and say.

That I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up, next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land, God bless the USA.

And I’m proud to be and American, where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up, next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land, God bless the USA.

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Copying Isn't Exercising Creativity

During college I was pursuing an Art Education degree. Throughout my experience with art, I had never dabbled in painting. It was always drawing, either with pencil or ink. The semester came when I had to take a painting class, and I chose Watercolor. Watercolor is a painting technique that requires a lot of discipline. For example, once you go dark, you can’t go light. So, you have to work from back to front and light to dark. In addition to that, the difficulty came when we had to come up with original works, just for our exercises/daily assignments. This was a Tuesday-Thursday class, so to come up with an original painting from Tuesday to be ready by Thursday morning was usually pretty tough. If we ever did something that was not original to us, it would be an automatic failing grade!

Too often when we see something that someone else has done we want to mimic it. Using what they have already done means that it has already been done. Though that is simple, my point is that we limit ourselves (and maybe God) when we take the easier road to do something someone else had done.

When we do something someone else has done, now we’re the same. We lose the distinction. Imagine if every business that started with an “m” used the shape, maybe different color, of the McDonald’s® sign? There would be a nation filled with that shape and people wouldn’t know if they were seeing a McDonald’s® or a Montana Mikes®!

We tend to treat the things we try in the church like recipes we have exchanged. The problem is, the recipe uses standard and controlled ingredients. Flour is the same here or there, and so is baking powder. However, trying to copy what a church is doing down the street or across the country is limiting because we are not that church. Our town is not the same, our people are not the same, or our culture is not the same. We need to be creative in our approaches to outreach and ‘inreach’. We don't want to be the same as someone else. We don’t want to limit our creativity so much to just copy someone. Copying doesn’t allow us to exercise our creativity. Let’s get creative so that we can not be cast into the “sea of sameness” and not be limiting what God can do through us!

An Outing Without Doubting - Joshua 6:15-17, 20

"Team, this year the conference championship is ours" says the coach. "All you have to do is practice, show up, and take the field," he continues, "Not only that, but we're going to win Districts, Bi-Districts, Regionals, Sectionals, Sub-state, and State!" By this time the kids are very pumped up. They can't believe it. Compared to last year's sub-par year, this will be awesome!

Can you imagine the hope they have each day and each game? Imagine what might be going through their minds. What would go through yours?

Put into a business perspective and create an endless amount of goals to reach, then imagine what it would be like to pursue that.

Now, imagine how hard you would work, in any instance, if you knew the victory was at hand? Some would still work, though many wouldn't. Think about as the season led on and you kept on winning and winning. You probably wouldn't work that hard as the season went on because your confidence level would be pretty high.

That is similar to what is happening in Joshua. God is guaranteeing the victory, they just have to do a few things to obtain it. This is probably one of the easiest victories in battle history. March around once-a-day for the first six days, then seven times on the seventh day. Blow your horns, shout, and take the plunder, while saving a promised family. Easy huh?

We CAN have it that easy, if we choose to look at it that way. Here are some applications to choose from to use this week from this section in Joshua...

1. March Around ~ We go a lot of places in this world. Some of them we go to regularly. The Israelites only went to Jericho once. Regardless, God may be sending you there to march around in order to give you a victory. Be conscious of the fact that where you go, it may be for the purpose of giving a victory...especially if you are going there on a regular basis.
2. Shout ~We can shout when we're at a sporting event, we can shout when we're mad, we can shout when we're trying to get someone's attention, why not shout to gain the victory? Imagine getting in your car, after "marching" for "six days" and saying "Ok, God...{then shouting...AAAAHHHHHH!} Shout for the victory! Shout like you're trying to break down the walls...of sin, of procrastination, of hesitation, of fear, etc., so you can go in and gain the victory that God has allowed to happen. If you don't experience the "walls coming down" keep marching and shouting!
3. Enemy Routed ~ I am in total awe when I sit back and think, "This is a God-thing". Something I didn't expect, but get a smack-in-the-face wake up call to the fact that what happened was God working with me and/or through me to put me in this situation. How I was in the right place to see a victory come to pass as God uses me, instead of the Enemy, to make a difference in someone's life.
   

One of the main applications that I can see from this section of scripture, is that when something that you feel God is asking you to do, which may seem utterly ridiculous to you, go ahead and do it. Whether you are going to be a dot in a connect-the-dots journey to Christ or you are going to be able to shout so as to knock down walls, do the crazy thing. You will probably be blown away by it as you are seeking Him in the process.

Deuteronomy 20:4 says, "For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory." Rest assured that when you are going in to battle, with Him in mind, He can give victory!

I challenged my congregation to start marching for six weeks (figuratively or literally) and then shout, beginning the week of December 20, 2009...see what walls may collapse! Let me know how it goes.

Winning the World Series Isn't the Only Good Thing a Guy Can Do

Last night I noticed a headline about Joe Girardi on my news updates, and decided to check it out.

Turns out he helped out a stranded motorist. I thought it was something worth mentioning because often the good things aren't mentioned, and I'm not even a Yankees fan.

It is a pretty short article but I thought it was neat that on the night that his club won the World Series, he still took time to do something nice for a stranger, by his own choice.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-girardiaidsmotorist&prov=ap&type=lgns

Motivators...to Keep You Going

It is the time of year for the corn harvest in the Midwest. The problem in the area where I'm at...wetness. It has been just wet enough that farmers have not been able to finish cutting the corn. The anxiousness that must flood the mind of a farmer on a regular basis is beyond my scope of understanding, as I'm not a farmer. With each crop, planting and harvesting, there is the challenge of timing. Following the planting comes the anxiousness of the balance of moisture and sunlight.

When I read this week's quote, I thought of a few different things to start it off with, but my mind kept coming back to the farmer. Here's this week's quote...

Faith and doubt both are needed, not as antagonists, but working side by side to take us around the unknown curve. ~Lillian Smith

Not being a farmer, I am going off of experiences being around farmers. When a farmer goes to plant, with hopes of the upcoming harvest that will take place in a few months, I can't help but to think he has faith and doubt. Faith that the crop will have a high yield and doubt that the weather will be without fail. I'm sure there are other 'faiths' and 'doubts', but either way the farmer keeps forging ahead, year after year, because he's been through it before and it keeps him going to the unknown season that lies ahead.

The same can go for us in life. We have no idea what the day may bring, but we keep going. For someone who sees no hope, you may need to add the faith, for doubt is rampant.

When I travel in the mountains, I can't see where the next town is, generally. I doubt that it is around the next curve, but I have faith it is coming up. It keeps me going!

May faith and doubt be the salt and pepper to keep you going in life!

Sudden Service

When I've taken my vehicle to get it serviced, typically an oil change, I pull up, get out, and go into the store or the garage bay letting them know what I'd like to have done to my car. This is probably the typical way that you are treated. Maybe, if the employees are having a slow period, they may come out and ask you how they can help you.

However, imagine pulling into a place like that and having the employees running out to greet you? Not walking fast or jogging, but running! No more having to get out of your car and hope or wait to be greeted. Wouldn't that give you a favorable impression? Wouldn't you probably come back?

That is exactly what happens with a service center place called Les Schwab Tires, typically located in the northwest part of the nation. The following is something that comes directly from their website, they call it "Sudden Service"...

SUDDEN SERVICE
You come in, we come running. We’re proud to offer fast, friendly service. We hand torque your lug nuts and wash your tires and wheels. Plus, we provide mobile service trucks when you can’t make it to our stores.
At Les Schwab, "We Guarantee our Service, Like we Guarantee our Tires."
(emphasis mine)

I wish I could take my vehicle to this place just to see what this kind of service is like, wouldn't you?

What if we turned this around to a church setting? If you were visiting a church and received an out-of-the-box genuine greeting, wouldn't it make a favorable impression on you? You would probably think that you would like to come back again.

Imagine the impression that it would give to a visitor for our greeters to go to them, as they were coming in the door. Or, if it was raining to walk out with an umbrella? How about, for our own people, if our greeters went that extra step for us, how would that help our attitude as we came to class/assembly?

Let's continue it on by thinking about the impression we can give to introduce ourselves to a visitor, to possibly sit by them, and/or to even offer to take them out to eat. I can just imagine the impact we would make on someone who came through our doors, into an already foreign environment, and was genuinely lavished with hospitality.

What other things might we be able to do to cause that first impression to be "what an awesome place to be!"?

Let's become a distinct church! Let's do "Sudden Service"!

Confronting the Battle: Porn Sunday

For those of you reading/knowing about this for the first time, it may be a bit of a shock to see. However, the church tends to be uncomfortable discussing the idea of pornography and things related to it, at length. Sometimes it is mentioned as a point in a sermon, but rarely is a whole sermon, filled with statistics and the hope for healing, ever mentioned. It is the elephant that is in the room, but never dealt with.

Pornography has a stickiness about it that can grab and never let go. It can be as much of a problem as any drug addiction. As any recovering addict will tell you, they will always be an addict, even when in recovery. That is because whatever they are trying to released from, their mind will always seem to "want" it. Along those same lines, if it is never dealt with and always brushed under the rug, then the person doesn't receive any form of healing or hope.

Pornography is found almost anywhere, in some form or another. After looking up the meaning of the word and its etymology anchors it to Greek. Interestingly it was about the writing of prostitutes or prostitution. Here's Webster's definition:

1. the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement
2. material (as books or a photograph) that depicts erotic behavior and is intended to cause sexual excitement
3. the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction

From those definitions, one could easily put many areas in the box labeled "pornography". There are the norms - magazines, x-rated films, x-rated books, and x-rated internet sites. However, you could also add in there other magazines, sending sexually explicit messages/pictures to someone, internet pop-ups or teasers, song lyrics, music videos, chat rooms - depending on the context of the chat, etc.

Here are a few statistics, some may be shocking, to keep in mind...

1. Americans ages 13-18 spend more than 72 hours a week using electronic media - defined as the internet, cell phones, television, music, and video games
2. Average age of first internet exposure to pornography --- 11!
3. 90% of 8-16 year olds have viewed porn online - most while doing homework.
4. 80% of 15-17 year olds have had multiple hard-core exposures
5. Searching keywords like ESPN, Disney, & White House can bring up sites that are pornographic
6. 77% of women who are sex addicts said that pornography was significant to their addiction
7. Filtered internet does not guarantee things won't come through or your children will not be able to get around the filter.

Another new rage that is becoming more and more available is known as "sexting". "Sexting" is defined as sending explicit words or images over a cell phone. I've had a mom call me with a concern about her son, who she found out received an image from a famale acquaintance. So, I know it is something that happening all over.

The good news is there is hope for healing. If you would like to discuss it further, please e-mail me at ichthus_man (at) hotmail.com