I’m always leery when someone comes back from a conference and starts to change everything. Once upon a time I was that guy who heard a powerful speaker and came back to try to do much of what the other person did. But that’s just not a good idea. It’s not healthy at all! And there’s a much better way.
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It’s a simple fact that I can’t give away someone I haven’t first received. I have to have it in order to give it away. I know that sounds pretty simple but so often we fail at sharing something because we haven’t properly invested in it ourselves. This week at Living Word Galena, we talked about forgiveness. The idea was that I’m only going to forgive as much as I’ve been forgiven. If I don’t value my own forgiveness, then I’m not going to forgive others well.
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Some days you’re on top of the world and have it all together. You’re stronger than you’ve ever been. You’ve got it all together and things are seemingly just falling into place. Then there are the other days. You know the days when it’s a success to just get out of bed. The days when finding a matching pair of socks makes you feel like a champion! Both of these kind of days are going to happen. But how can we face the challenging days with as much confidence as the easy one? Maybe it happens in knowing that someone is actually fighting for me!
Continue readingThis week at Living Word Galena we took a moment to stop and just be. It’s a pretty hard thing to do if you’re honest with yourself. Not focusing on work or to do lists or meetings or meal planning on running kids around or band practice or sporting events but just stopping for even just a minute to be, simply be.
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In a quest to make my way through 52 books this year, I made my to book 37 for the year and wow it was a good one. Someone suggested this book because I’ve been talking a lot about prayer lately, so I added it to my reading app and when it arrived I did my normal listening routine. I set my speed at around 1.75 – 2.25 times normal and started to listen. It didn’t take long before I realized that this book would require two runs through and one at a much more manageable speed!
So here’s the gist of the book. Simply put we pray to small and too seldom. It’s pretty much that easy. The idea behind The Circle Maker is the story of Jericho in the Bible. The Israelites were told by God to walk around the city everyday. Each day they essentially drew a circle around the city until one day God finally did something amazing. The walls crumbled to the ground. They didn’t crumble because of the weight of their trampling feet. The walls didn’t collapse because the Israelites were so mighty and so powerful that just walking had this massive effect.
The walls came down because the Israelite people did what God told them to do and circled the giant city and let the results be in God’s hands. You see so often we start to circle our Jericho and think it’s too big so we stop walking. We look at the size of our problem and forget the size of our God. The author, Mark Batterson, tells us that the things for which we ask of God are just flat too small. If we can do it then why do we ask God to do it?
I’ve started my own journey of circling my prayers. I’m not sure if you have one or not but I re-started my prayer journal. In it I write the things I’m praying for and the ways God has answered them. As I pray, I’m now circling some words in the prayers. I circle the words that are my Jericho. Some of the words are physical things like helping us pull off a big event at church while others are non-tangible things like self-confidence or focus. Whatever they are, in the moment they’re like a Jericho to me. But as I look at my prayers I’ve quickly realized that I don’t pray nearly big enough!
I guess it’s time to find a prayer that only God can answer and start praying that prayer. Will you join me is becoming a circle-maker?
As a pastor, I kind of have a thing for worship. I believe it’s important to say the very least. As a matter of fact, I think we should all find a place to connect with God in worship with other people who believe what and how we believe! But that’s not all worship is. For so many Christians, worship is something that has to happen in a place at a certain time. It can only last a certain length of time and we have to act a certain way while we’re there. But what if worship was more than a 60 minute time slot on Sundays?
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Have you ever had someone you look up to who seems to have the perfect marriage begin to show signs that something’s just not right? What about you, have you ever been there in your own marriage? Journeying through a marriage has so many highs and some lows as well. But how we manage the lows is just as important as the number of highs! Dealing with the lows of marriage is critical! This is why I strongly encourage all couples getting married to have a few sessions of pre-marriage counseling.
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I’ve been holding onto some news for about a week now and it’s just eating me up, so I have to let you all in on a little (ok maybe not so little) secret. This past week I was made aware that the church I pastor has been selected to be a host site for the 2020 Night to Shine. This event will take place at Living Word Galena on February 7, 2020! If you’re unfamiliar with Night to Shine, it’s a powerful experience that’s organized by the Tim Tebow Foundation where students with special needs get a prom all their own. They get to dance, sing, take pictures, be the stars they are and in the end they’ll be crowned Kings and Queens of the prom! It’s an amazing experience! Just check out this video.
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In our lives, we have a tendency to feel like we have to choose. Well, in some cases that’s very true. I mean some things in life require a choice, but not everything! Over the next 6 weeks, we’re going to journey through something called the Red Letter Challenge at Living Word Galena. This challenge is all about finding the words of Jesus and seeing where they lead us. So for the next 40 days or so we’re going to do a daily reading together, join small groups and these Sunday messages will chart the course for the week ahead.
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This week at Living Word Galena we started something called the Red Letter Challenge. The idea behind the RLC is to look through the bible for the most powerful words of the bible and then apply them to our lives. The RLC was written as a 40 day devotion, small group and sermon series by Zach Zender. You can look into the book here. But the red letters we’re referring to here are the ones in the New Testament of the Bible. They’re the words attributed to Jesus. These are the words that aren’t just inspired by God through earthly writers. These are the words of Jesus, the very Son of God. Now understand that all of the bible is profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training to be certain! But through this study, we’ll be pulling the red letters of Jesus off the pages and seeing where our lives match up to His teachings.
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