Go Figure!

I don't care what Forrest Gump says, life is not like a box of chocolates, it more like a Rubik's Cube! With a box of chocolates you at least know your going to get something good regardless what you pick! However when it comes to a Rubik's cube it takes many twists and turns to get it figured out, then when you think you see how it's going to work out, you find you were way off. Such is life!
In my last post I told how I was just super busy with work and I was, until this week. I went from working fifty or better hours to this week where I barley have worked twenty! That is sort of the way it has gone at my shop for the last six years I've worked there. It used to totally freak me out and fill me with worry every time I would get way down in hours and have no work on the horizon.Over the last six years though, God really has taught me to rely on him and to not put so much weight in my paychecks. 2 Timothy 1:7 says that God has not given us a spirit of fear. While I'm a little scared of the unknown, I'm totally at peace knowing that God is in control and that He will work everything out for my good and His glory.
So how about you, do you often find yourself worrying about things? Things that you have no control over anyways? I challenge you to give it over to God let him work it out. I can tell you from experience, it works out better that way!

Slow down or get out paced

Man, it's been way to long sine I've posted. Life just gets so busy at times, it really sucks when you don't have time to do the things you really want to do. All summer long I've been working 55-65 hours a week, working out 3-4 times a week, running 4 times a week to stay in shape for the three 5k races I ran. Not to mention my involvement in church being a father and husband and all the everyday stuff that requires my attention. Thankfully work has slowed down some, but it has been replaced with school work. Yep as if my my life was not busy enough, two yeas ago I decided to go back to school to get a degree in tooling and manufacturing technologies. Seven years ago I received my journeyman's card in injection molding, but in the manufacturing world these days, that's not enough.
So all that to say, in all of my busyness I unfortunately have dropped the ball in other areas of life. While I still pray daily and read the my Bible, the quality of that time has gone south. So I challenge you and myself to not let the things that matter in life to take a back seat to all the busyness that we involve ourselves in. This would include our service in church as well. To many of us serve in our churches so much that we tend to neglect time with our families or our own personal time with Jesus.
If all this sounds like you, slow down reconnect with Jesus, and family. I know I need too.

Whatever it Takes!

Hard to believe but it's been 30 years since Lego Man showed up on the scene. For 30 years kids have been playing with Lego's and building castles for Lego Man to protect and spaceships for him to ride in. A lot of creativity and imagination went into building those things and today we as Christians should be using way more creativity than that when it comes to getting people into the church and ministering to them. Yep, we should be using every idea and creative way we can think of to draw people into church so that we may be able to introduce them to Jesus.
I know what many may think, "All the church needs to do is preach Jesus and people will come, we don't need to have flashy lights, loud music, and and lots of technology to get people into church, just Jesus! We don't need to offer anything but Jesus!" To that I say "Are you nuts!!" John 15:18 says "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you." Non-Christians don't want Jesus, that's why they are non-Christians. They have to be told of and see their need for Jesus and know that he is their only hope. It's our job to share the gospel with those around us and use any appropriate method to draw them into church so they can hear the gospel and be ministered to. Even Jesus used different methods to draw a crowd.
Really, Jesus too compelled people to come listen to the gospel. Of course his methods were a bit different. They were timely for the culture he was in. Think about it, there were crowds that followed Jesus, multitudes the Bible tells us, and you can't tell me that everyone that followed Christ was an actual follower of Christ. No way, many followed because they knew he could meet a need of theirs. For some it might have been the need a healing touch, a meal, or a need to reconnect with a loved one that passed away. Whatever it was Jesus was there to meet the needs of people, but why he was meeting their needs, he also taught them about sin, repentance, and their need for a savior.
The mission and the message has not changed, but the means have. For some just preaching Jesus is all it will take, for others it might take years of ministering and showing them the love of Christ before they see their need for him and for others it might just take sweet technology, flashy lights and loud music. Point is, we need to use whatever appropriate means to get the Gospel out to people.

Lesson from the potty seat

Well, it seems like it has taken forever but I think that the time has come to finally say she's got it! My wife and I have been working on potty training with our daughter who turned three a few weeks ago. I thought she would have gotten it months ago, she is a really smart kid, so you can imagine our frustration. Many months ago she did almost have it, but the her brother came along and she decided she was not ready to not be the baby anymore. It took many months of discipline, correcting, and teaching, but in the end she had to decide that she no longer wanted to be the baby and that it was something that she really wanted to do.
Just simply being a dad has helped me to learn a lot more about our heavenly father. For a long time He will continue to correct, teach and discipline his children, really wanting us to learn the lesson he is teaching. Like my daughter, we need to determine the we no longer want to be the baby christian we once were, grow up, and learn the lesson God has for us.
What is it that God is trying to teach you? Are you listening or responding to his teaching or maybe his correction? God's proud of his children when we learn and grow, for many of us, it's time to give in and make our heavenly father proud.

Live it out!

Well, it's been a week since my last post, and man, has it been a busy week! Work has been crazy all summer, between 55 and 60 hours a week all summer long, and this past weekend we had our annual youth retreat. We did call it "Wilderness Weekend" but over the years it has been becoming much less of a wilderness experience and more of a general "church camp" type event. So this year we finally changed the name to "Re:Fuel".....I like it!
We named it Re:Fuel because that is what we're attempting to do do our students before the new school year begins. Just like last year it took place at Son-Life camp down in Wayland,MI. It's a small camp, but serves our purposes very well. Not to mention it's not to far out of town.
Anyways, the weekend was filled with a ton of fun as well as some awesome challenges from Gods word.
Our theme for the weekend was "Inside Out" and we challenged our students to live out their faith for all to see.We had four different speakers over the weekend, and God spoke through each one of them. First up was one of our youth leaders, Matt Lane. Matt spoke out of Psalms 19 and really challenged the students to really meditate on the scriptures and that our heart saturates our soul with what we are meditating on. It was an awesome talk.
Second was another of our youth staff, Scott Charles. Oh wait, hey that's me. I spoke out of James 1. I challenged the students to look into Gods mirror, the scriptures, and see if they are reflecting Jesus. To allow the scriptures to show them what they look like and to show them what they need to become. The scriptures as well as our faith will call us to action, either to change something about ourselves, or to serves others.
Our third speaker for the weekend was our churches new singles pastor, Jared Moore. Jared spoke out of Mathew 15. He challenged the students to not practice religion like the scribes and pharisees of Jesus day, but to have a deep well rooted relationship with Christ.
Last to speak was Jimmy Mahaney, our churches youth pastor. Jimmy also spoke out of Mathew 15 and challenged the students to take responsibility for their own hearts and to guard their hearts against sin.
God really moved in the hearts of our students this past weekend and in this youth leaders heart as well. I think a lot of times when we as leaders teach, God lays it on our hearts because it's a message he wants to get into our hearts as well. I know that was the case for me. To those of you reading this that are leaders, be very open to what Gods wants to say through you. He maybe just wanting to say it too you.
Obviously I could go on more about the talks this past weekend as well as all the fun we had, but there is a three year old standing next to me wanting to play the Memory Game......gotta go!

It's no easy task!

Ephesians 6:4 (ESV)
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Proverbs 22:6 (ESV)
Train up a child in the way he should go;even when he is old he will not depart from it.

These are just a couple of instructions that the scriptures give to fathers and parents in regards to raising children. As I read just these two examples I think about the magnitude of them. Think of the impact on the life of a child if you even get just these two verses wrong! My prayer for all parents is that we would constantly lean on God for wisdom and strength, and never take for granted the little life that God has entrusted to us. Thank you God for the awesome example you have given us! My I continually grow in your grace so that each day I can be the father you want me to be!

August 11 2005 @ 4:45 p.m. Chloe Joy Charles was born into this world! It's hard to believe that it's been three years! Happy Birthday Chloe, daddy loves you!

It's really about self control!

This past Sunday Perry Noble, pastor of Newspring Church preached a sermon titled "Is it OK for a Christian to drink alcohol?" It was a great talk about the use of alcohol as a Christian. You can listen to it here. I'll go ahead and spoil it for you a bit, NO it's not wrong for a Christian or anybody else for that matter, to drink alcohol.
Perry talks about it a bit in the sermon, but I need to echo it because it's something that I have felt strongly about for years. What he mentions is the fact that so many preachers hammer on alcohol as if it were a sin, when they themselves are so out of shape, they are out of breath just from walking up to the pulpit!
While drinking alcohol and eating are not sins, getting drunk and being a glutton is sin. This really is a heart problem. One of the fruits of the spirit is self control but when someone allows alcohol or food to take control of there lives they have given up that self control and have given in to sin.
As Christians our bodies are temples of God, we need to keep them in the best shape as we can. Perry also had a few health related blogs last week too, check them out here. We can't make a lasting impact for Christ if we are dead from alcohol poisoning or clogged veins. By the way the bodybuilder pictured above is Lee Priest, one of the best in the world.