This morning we had to get up really early at our house. (I'm still tired) We had to get up early because we had to transform Abbi into Cinderella by 8:00am. Today she was having the Halloween party at her school, and all the kindergarten students were dressed up. I saw lots of princesses and spidermans as well as a few Ghosts and goblins as well.
There was one little boy that was wearing a mask and he could hardly see out of it. His Mom was trying to adjust it to make it fit better so that he could at least walk in a straight line.
Most of us have stopped dressing up on Halloween, we put away the costumes and the make up, but yet as adults we often put on a different kind of mask. I like to call it the I'm fine mask.
We can be having the worst day and yet when people ask us how we are we say "I'm fine." Why do we do that? Why do we act like things are OK when really there not? Now I understand that you're not going to lay your heart out to every person that asks you How you are doing, that would just make you look weird and needy. However a lot of us never let people into our lives when things are going bad, instead we wear our masks.
There are times when we will even try and trick God with our Masks. We will ignore the hurts and the wounds that life has given us and we will just pray I'm Fine prayers to God. What's an I'm fine prayer? It looks like this:
Hi God, I'm now going to pray for everybody else and ignore the problems in my own life because I'm Fine (even though you're not)
God can't be tricked, What God wants you to do is take off the mask and be yourself.
Matthew 6:7-8 says "when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
The mask that you wear doesn't trick God, all it does it is block your vision. We need to take off the masks with each other and with God if we are ever going to Be real.
What mask are you wearing?
PJ
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Smashing Pumpkins
Last night the family and I went out for about an hour. We left at 6:00pm and we were home by 7:30pm. However in that short period of time a crime was committed. That's right our home was vandalized, somebody smashed our pumpkin.
It was smashed in the middle of the driveway, and so I stopped the van and got out and hide the body so that the shock of this crime would not effect our kids. After we put the kids to bed I went outside to investigate the crime scene. Where is Horatio Cane when you need him? Anyway I looked up and down the street to see if I was the only victim of the rampage of crime, it seemed that we were.
Then thoughts ran through my head, I wondered if we were targeted for such an attack, and if we were by who? Could it be someone that didn't like us because we did something to them? Could it be someone from Life Church that didn't appreciate the sermon on Halloween that I preached on Sunday? Who ever it was I knew one thing, I'll never figure it out.
It's interesting to me that when something bad happens we always want to know: WHY ME?
Why would I be the one selected to deal with this bad event. We ask ourselves questions like is it a test? Is there some kind of sin in my life and I'm being punished? Is there something God wants me to learn?
I remember when September 11th happened a lot of people were asking why? And some pastors tried to give answers to that question but all the attempts to answer WHY were pretty lame. Sometimes I think that there is no answer to that question, or maybe there is but only God knows what it is.
Solomon was known for his Wisdom. If there was any author in Scripture that should have the answer to why it's him. Yet after years of study and seeking answers this is what he came up with:
Ecclesiastes 1:2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
Wow I feel better what about you? Sometimes there is no answer that we can figure out to why? Why something happens, to good people.
However I do know that God is in control, and my job in this thing called life is to be faithful to Him through everything, good or bad.
I've got to go now and buy and new pumpkin!
PJ :)
P.S. I tried to put the pic of this up but It's not working, so if you want to see the pic of my smashed pumpkin, check out the lifechurch flickr site.
It was smashed in the middle of the driveway, and so I stopped the van and got out and hide the body so that the shock of this crime would not effect our kids. After we put the kids to bed I went outside to investigate the crime scene. Where is Horatio Cane when you need him? Anyway I looked up and down the street to see if I was the only victim of the rampage of crime, it seemed that we were.
Then thoughts ran through my head, I wondered if we were targeted for such an attack, and if we were by who? Could it be someone that didn't like us because we did something to them? Could it be someone from Life Church that didn't appreciate the sermon on Halloween that I preached on Sunday? Who ever it was I knew one thing, I'll never figure it out.
It's interesting to me that when something bad happens we always want to know: WHY ME?
Why would I be the one selected to deal with this bad event. We ask ourselves questions like is it a test? Is there some kind of sin in my life and I'm being punished? Is there something God wants me to learn?
I remember when September 11th happened a lot of people were asking why? And some pastors tried to give answers to that question but all the attempts to answer WHY were pretty lame. Sometimes I think that there is no answer to that question, or maybe there is but only God knows what it is.
Solomon was known for his Wisdom. If there was any author in Scripture that should have the answer to why it's him. Yet after years of study and seeking answers this is what he came up with:
Ecclesiastes 1:2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
Wow I feel better what about you? Sometimes there is no answer that we can figure out to why? Why something happens, to good people.
However I do know that God is in control, and my job in this thing called life is to be faithful to Him through everything, good or bad.
I've got to go now and buy and new pumpkin!
PJ :)
P.S. I tried to put the pic of this up but It's not working, so if you want to see the pic of my smashed pumpkin, check out the lifechurch flickr site.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Devotion or Duty?
On Thursday night I was driving to the grocery store close to my house. Across the street from my grocery store there is a Mosque. Now this Mosque is fairly new and so being a church planter I'm always interested to see how full the parking lot of religious institutions may be. It was packed, I mean full and this was at 10pm at night. I have to admit that I was surprised to see it so full.
Now I know a little bit about Islam, and I know that as a Muslim you are supposed to pray 5 times a day. I wondered if this was the final night prayer session or maybe it was a special meeting. Whatever it was, there was certainly good attendance, so I asked myself this question. WHY? I know that if I was to try and do something at LifeChurch on a Thursday night at 10pm I would probably be here by myself. It's make you ask the question do people do religious things out of a sense of Devotion or duty?
Religion is a funny thing, because it is often fueled by duty. We do things like, go to church, give money, even pray out of a sense of duty. We feel that if we don't do these things then we have done something wrong, or we will not EARN our salvation or our ticket into paradise.
It's funny but I don't think that's the highest level of worship, in fact it may be one of the lowest levels of worship. Does God like it when I do something because I have to and not because I want to.
The people in the Old Testament used to do good things because they had to as well. This is what the prophet Isaiah said about that:
Isaiah 64 5-6 "You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved?
6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. "
Isaiah is saying that unless you are doing your acts of righteousness out of a love and devotion for God they are like filthy rags and have no value to God.
That brings up a lot of questions though. Should I go to church or give to God even when I don't feel like it? Is it based on feelings? Is there a place for duty in our relationship with God?
Well I don't always feel like I love my wife or my kids, sometimes we have conflict (Yes It's true) but yet I know that I love them, and when I serve them it's out of love. So how do we know when it's love and not guilt that spurs us to action?
Maybe there is a place for duty in our relationship, but if there is it must be duty because of devotion.
I'll let you think about that.
Maybe we can learn something about commitment from the Muslim community?
Now I know a little bit about Islam, and I know that as a Muslim you are supposed to pray 5 times a day. I wondered if this was the final night prayer session or maybe it was a special meeting. Whatever it was, there was certainly good attendance, so I asked myself this question. WHY? I know that if I was to try and do something at LifeChurch on a Thursday night at 10pm I would probably be here by myself. It's make you ask the question do people do religious things out of a sense of Devotion or duty?
Religion is a funny thing, because it is often fueled by duty. We do things like, go to church, give money, even pray out of a sense of duty. We feel that if we don't do these things then we have done something wrong, or we will not EARN our salvation or our ticket into paradise.
It's funny but I don't think that's the highest level of worship, in fact it may be one of the lowest levels of worship. Does God like it when I do something because I have to and not because I want to.
The people in the Old Testament used to do good things because they had to as well. This is what the prophet Isaiah said about that:
Isaiah 64 5-6 "You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved?
6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. "
Isaiah is saying that unless you are doing your acts of righteousness out of a love and devotion for God they are like filthy rags and have no value to God.
That brings up a lot of questions though. Should I go to church or give to God even when I don't feel like it? Is it based on feelings? Is there a place for duty in our relationship with God?
Well I don't always feel like I love my wife or my kids, sometimes we have conflict (Yes It's true) but yet I know that I love them, and when I serve them it's out of love. So how do we know when it's love and not guilt that spurs us to action?
Maybe there is a place for duty in our relationship, but if there is it must be duty because of devotion.
I'll let you think about that.
Maybe we can learn something about commitment from the Muslim community?
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Lessons My Mum Taught me
So last week we had our grand opening service. The stage in the church is black, so to lighten things up a bit we put Yellow and orange Mum's on the stage.
It looked great, made everything come together. At the end of the service some of the ladies in the church were moving the Mum's out of the sanctuary into the lobby of the church. I was about to ask why when I realized that it was because the Mums needed to be in the light to survive.
Yesterday Christa talked about gravity and needing to stay in the light. She was quoting a John Mayer song ( I think she likes his music, just guessing). Anyway in the songs Mayer says he needs to stay in the light. That's what made me think about these Mums, they need to stay in the light to survive as well.
We can be so busy everyday running around doing the day to day stuff, that we forget to take some time to get into the light. As Christians how long can we survive without exposing ourselves to the light of God.
I remember growing bean sprouts in Science class. Some we grew in the light, and others we put in the darkness. The ones that were in the light were healthy and strong, but the ones in the dark, were off color and weak.
There are a lot of us that are weak Christians, and I think a lot of that has to do with how much time we spend in the light. That's one of the reasons why we do this devotional blog to give us some time each day that we can spend in the light to make us just a little bit more healthy.
John 8:12 says "Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”
How much time do you spend in the light? Then again I'm talking to the people that actually do read this blog. I guess I might be preaching to the choir a bit.
Check out the blog next week, and make sure to comment don't be a lurker (nice word)
PJ
It looked great, made everything come together. At the end of the service some of the ladies in the church were moving the Mum's out of the sanctuary into the lobby of the church. I was about to ask why when I realized that it was because the Mums needed to be in the light to survive.
Yesterday Christa talked about gravity and needing to stay in the light. She was quoting a John Mayer song ( I think she likes his music, just guessing). Anyway in the songs Mayer says he needs to stay in the light. That's what made me think about these Mums, they need to stay in the light to survive as well.
We can be so busy everyday running around doing the day to day stuff, that we forget to take some time to get into the light. As Christians how long can we survive without exposing ourselves to the light of God.
I remember growing bean sprouts in Science class. Some we grew in the light, and others we put in the darkness. The ones that were in the light were healthy and strong, but the ones in the dark, were off color and weak.
There are a lot of us that are weak Christians, and I think a lot of that has to do with how much time we spend in the light. That's one of the reasons why we do this devotional blog to give us some time each day that we can spend in the light to make us just a little bit more healthy.
John 8:12 says "Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”
How much time do you spend in the light? Then again I'm talking to the people that actually do read this blog. I guess I might be preaching to the choir a bit.
Check out the blog next week, and make sure to comment don't be a lurker (nice word)
PJ
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
The Blank Canvas
Well here we are in our season of new things and today is the first day of our blogotional!
There have been so many great things happen in the Life of our church over the past few months that I have to say, God is really blessing us right now. Sunday was great, but to be honest now I'm really excited to see what God is going to do.
I really been thinking about what I should write about being the first blog. I feel in my heart that I want to talk about a blank Canvas.
I remember an artist once telling me that they had the most amazing feeling when they would stand in front of a blank Canvas because of the potential it had to become the most amazing piece of art that has ever been created!
Today I have that blank canvas feeling, it's a feeling of excitement mixed with nervous tension because the potential is there for success and the potential is there for failure to, but most of all there is this feeling of freedom, freedom to create something new, and that is how I feel about life church and the blogotional, and even my little family.
There are so many directions we could go, and so many good things that we could do as a church and as individuals how do you know which decisions are the right ones? When an artist paints a picture, how do they know that there brush stroke is going to look right and add to the picture that are painting? Especially the first few strokes.
The reality is that when you start something new there is an element of risk, but that is what makes it exciting. It's alot more exciting then just copying someone else's painting.
In your life maybe God is challenging you to do something that has never been done before and you wonder what you should do. What is it going to look like?
I think you should take on the challenge, because at some point we all have to do something new, something never done before, or life would just be full of copies and there would never be anything original. That sounds really boring to me!
"The definition of insanity is to do the same thing and expect different results"
In the Bible Jesus says "I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. " Jn 14:12
The painter paints from his heart and he sees the painting in his mind before it ever hits the Canvas. We as Christian's have a connection directly to God through what Jesus did for us on the cross, and he gives us a vision of what we should do before it ever becomes reality the question is do we have the trust and courage to do it?
I guess I'm thinking about this because at Life Church we are trying really hard to do things differently, and even this blogotional is something new, the first stroke of the brush on what we hope will be a great original piece of art.
I'm really excited because I think this canvas will turn into something great as long as we hear from the master painter and have the courage to paint!
Are you ready to grab a brush and paint?
PJ
There have been so many great things happen in the Life of our church over the past few months that I have to say, God is really blessing us right now. Sunday was great, but to be honest now I'm really excited to see what God is going to do.
I really been thinking about what I should write about being the first blog. I feel in my heart that I want to talk about a blank Canvas.
I remember an artist once telling me that they had the most amazing feeling when they would stand in front of a blank Canvas because of the potential it had to become the most amazing piece of art that has ever been created!
Today I have that blank canvas feeling, it's a feeling of excitement mixed with nervous tension because the potential is there for success and the potential is there for failure to, but most of all there is this feeling of freedom, freedom to create something new, and that is how I feel about life church and the blogotional, and even my little family.
There are so many directions we could go, and so many good things that we could do as a church and as individuals how do you know which decisions are the right ones? When an artist paints a picture, how do they know that there brush stroke is going to look right and add to the picture that are painting? Especially the first few strokes.
The reality is that when you start something new there is an element of risk, but that is what makes it exciting. It's alot more exciting then just copying someone else's painting.
In your life maybe God is challenging you to do something that has never been done before and you wonder what you should do. What is it going to look like?
I think you should take on the challenge, because at some point we all have to do something new, something never done before, or life would just be full of copies and there would never be anything original. That sounds really boring to me!
"The definition of insanity is to do the same thing and expect different results"
In the Bible Jesus says "I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. " Jn 14:12
The painter paints from his heart and he sees the painting in his mind before it ever hits the Canvas. We as Christian's have a connection directly to God through what Jesus did for us on the cross, and he gives us a vision of what we should do before it ever becomes reality the question is do we have the trust and courage to do it?
I guess I'm thinking about this because at Life Church we are trying really hard to do things differently, and even this blogotional is something new, the first stroke of the brush on what we hope will be a great original piece of art.
I'm really excited because I think this canvas will turn into something great as long as we hear from the master painter and have the courage to paint!
Are you ready to grab a brush and paint?
PJ
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