HARMLESS THOUGHTS

I just finished reading Enjoy Your Prayer Life by Michael Reeves on Sunday. I found this short little book to be powerfully convicting, but not in a way that beat me over the head or loaded on the guilt. There was definitely the sense that one's prayer life speaks volumes about their personal spiritual life, which cuts like a knife when your prayer life isn't so hot... But instead of loading on the guilt with extended stories of those prayer warriors of our faith, Michael Reeves would temper those stories with those prayer warrior's prayer foibles. The end of this book was full of hope, found in the practical applications that the author offers. Applications that give the reader real ways to point their hearts toward joy in prayer. I highly recommend this book.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; The clouds ye so much dread Are big with mercy, and shall break In blessings on your head.  Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust him for his grace; Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.  His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding every hour; The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower.  Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan his work in vain; God is his own interpreter, And he will make it plain. William Cowper, God Moves in a Mysterious Way

When I was in my Junior or Senior year of high school, I wasn't the best of kids. Sure, I wasn't the worst of kids, but I definitely wasn't the best... It was mostly about being mischievous, but there was a definite path that I was taking. I wasn't aware of this myself, when you are smack dab in the middle of the morality compass, it is easy to think about the fact that you really aren't all that bad. On top of that, I knew the Word. My parents were both Christians, I went to church every Sunday, I went to a Christian School, I attended all of the revival services our church held, and I made my way to a Christian Camp in the summer. The Bible was something that I was very familiar with, but I was a hearer of the Word and not really a doer. All of this attendance was mandatory at that particular time of my life, so it was a faulty gauge for measuring my actual spirituality. There were other things that should have made me aware of this reality, but I was self-dec...

This year I started teaching an elective centered on AVID. If I understand it correctly, this is a program that is geared toward helping those kids who are potentially college bound, but don't necessarily have all of the help and support that they might need from home. If you would like to learn more about AVID, you can check out their website, but that is not the purpose of this particular post... I am writing this post because I believe that connected to AVID is an amazing opportunity for youth ministry minded people to be able to get into their local public schools. The opportunity comes in the form of an AVID Tutor. Don't worry, you don't actually have to tutor the kids, they are working with each other in the tutoring process, but the AVID program has tutors available to help guide them during these times. The amazing thing is that this is actually a paid program. I believe that it is $9.00 an hour and it is for a few hours on Tuesday and Thursday. I am especia...

This week we are trying to answer the question, "How does a Christian respond to the cussing, cursing, and taking God's name in vain, that they experience while listening to and being around unsaved coworkers?" If you have any questions or further comments, feel free to leave them in the comment section below this post.

Christians should never be satisfied with yesterday's grace. It is a shocking thing for Christians to have to admit that they have grown little in their knowledge of Jesus Christ. ~Basics for Believers by D.A. Carson pg 89-90

Here is the first episode of the "Ask the Pastor" podcast. This podcast answers the question, "Can Christians get tattoos?" (If the player does not load, click here to download an mp3 of the podcast .) Maybe this player will load...  

I painted some "happy little trees" ... click the picture to enlarge This was done on one of those tiny little canvases. Do you think that I should make a few of these? Does anyone think they would sell?

Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, “I am only joking!”  (Proverbs 26:18-19, ESV) Three word definitions might be helpful here: "madman" -- This word is only used twice in the Bible. It means "flaming" and can be translated as such. "madman" or "maniac" are also appropriate translations of this word. It is also translated as "enchantment" or "occult fire" in other versions of the Bible.  "throws" -- also translated as "shoots" "deceives" -- This word actually means "throw." It can mean "deceives" ... not in the sense of lying or tricking... but in the sense of causing one to stumble. It is also translated as "throw" or "betray"...  The remainder of these two verses is very adequately translated. I add these definitions, not to protect one from making this passage say "too much...

For my Edgewood Peeps!

I painted a happy little cloud...

Here it is... Live from Minneapolis, MN... in the middle of a busy restaurant! (If the player doesn't load below, click here to download an mp3 of this podcast .) ... And here are the Chicken Tacos that arrived while recording the podcast...   :)

Painting number two...

My first attempt at acrylic painting...

In my personal Bible reading this morning I came across a passage of scripture that I don't think that I have ever noticed before. It is in Isaiah 25, and what initially caught my attention was the ESV Bible's heading for this chapter: it was titled -- God will swallow up death forever. Quite often, as I am reading through these Old Testament Prophets, my brain will slip into neutral: I will still be reading, but I have ceased to process the words. Sometimes this happens because of my Adult A.D.D. Sometimes it is associated with the fact that it is a pronouncement of judgement against some ancient nation... the Moabites or the Ammonites or such. This isn't an excuse, and I hate that I do it, but I'm just being honest... I struggle. But then, I will come upon a passage that clearly speaks out about something directly connected to me. In this case it rings true to my own benefits found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. After the crucifixion and after Christ is resurrecte...

Here is the second episode of the Edgewood Edge-U-Cation Podcast. Once again coming to you from my basement and fueled by Diet Mountain Dew... (If the player doesn't load below, just click here to downlaod an mp3 of the podcast .)

Here is episode one of Edgewood Edge-U-Cation Podcast. (I am just going to try doing this. No promises that it will last.)

From prayer that asks that I may be Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee, From fearing when I should aspire, From faltering when I should climb higher, From silken self, O Captain, free Thy soldier who would follow Thee.  From subtle love of softening things, From easy choices, weakenings, (Not thus are spirits fortified, Not this way went the Crucified,) From all that dims Thy Calvary, O Lamb of God, deliver me.  Give me the love that leads the way, The faith that nothing can dismay The hope no disappointments tire The passion that will burn like fire, Let me not sink to be a clod: Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God. Poem by Amy Carmichael, quoted in Basics for Believers by D.A. Carson

We choose: we follow the dragon and his beasts along their parade route, conspicuous with the worship of splendid images, elaborated in mysterious symbols, fond of statistics, taking on whatever role is necessary to make a good show and get the applause of the crowds in order to get access to power and become self-important. Or we follow the Lamb along a farmyard route, worshipping the invisible, listening to the foolishness of preaching, practicing a holy life that involves heroically difficult acts that no one will ever notice, in order to become, simply, our eternal selves in an eternal city. It is the difference, politically, between wanting to use the people around us to become powerful (or, if unskilled, getting used by them), and entering into covenants with the people around us so that the power of salvation extends into every part of the neighborhood, the society, and the world that God loves.  —EUGENE PETERSON This quote is in the prelude of the book The Way of the Drag...

I've gone to church my whole life, at least as long as I can remember. I've been involved in several different local churches at a variety of levels, but most recently (for the last 8 years) as the Senior Pastor of Edgewood Baptist Church in Danville, IL.  Over the course of these years I have been forced, by reason of necessity, to consider what the scriptures say about how church ought to be. A week or so ago I posted some of my first thoughts on this topic in When Church Is Done Right: It Is Like Family . In this post I want to discuss a topic that I have had mixed feelings and varied beliefs over the years. The topic is Church Attendance.... So, here we go: Open Doors ( Image Source ) I want to begin with why I have had mixed feelings on this topic. You see, I grew up with the idea that "every time the church doors were opened, we were there." This usually meant Sunday School, Sunday Morning Service, Sunday Night Service, and Wednesday Night Service. When ...

"I must confess that I never would have been saved if I could have helped it. As long as ever I could, I rebelled, and revolted, and struggled against God. When He would have me to pray, I would not pray … And when I heard, and the tear rolled down my cheek, I wiped it away and defied Him to melt my soul. But long before I began with Christ, He began with me." http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/biospurgeon6.html  quoting W. Y. Fullerton, Charles H. Spurgeon: London's Most Popular Preacher. Chicago: Moody Press, 1966, pg. 32

When you (plural) do church right, there are all sorts of things that naturally result. One of those things is that it becomes like family. image source: http://www.movemelord.com/church-family-love/ There is Biblical Precedent for this: God is our Heavenly Father. (Luke 11:2-14) We are called brothers and sisters. (This is used countless times in the New Testament, one example is here: Philippians 3:13-14) We are adopted in to the family of God. (Romans 8:15) Jesus is our great older brother that we are "joint heirs" with. (Romans 8:17) But any of us who have truly been a part of a local church, for an extended amount of time, will tell you that this is true experientially as well.  But listen though... I am not purporting any lovey-dovey-feel-warm-and-fuzzy sentiment here! Family can be tough. We all have that crazy aunt and the funny uncle and the favorite grandpa and the annoying brother and ... well... you get it. But it is FAMILY. You keep getting tog...

From a NY Post Article: We now know that those iPads, smartphones and Xboxes are a form of digital drug. Recent brain imaging research is showing that they affect the brain’s frontal cortex — which controls executive functioning, including impulse control — in exactly the same way that cocaine does. Technology is so hyper-arousing that it raises dopamine levels — the feel-good neurotransmitter most involved in the addiction dynamic — as much as sex. Read the full article here: It’s ‘digital heroin’: How screens turn kids into psychotic junkies...

Here are the slides for the sermon on Sunday, June 11th, 2017: ( The Sermon Audio )

I haven't done my daily devotional blog since 2013, but recently started it back up for the current study at my church . I'm asking that you swing on by and check out Let Me Not Wander and catch up on Philippians Study. I also encourage you to add your own commentary or questions on each of the verses. 

I don't see what the big deal is... Breakfast cookies have been around for years.

This is the 17th time I have ended a school year as a teacher. Actually it is my 18th, if you count my student teaching experience. I have spent nearly an equal amount of time teaching at public schools as I have private Christian schools, and there has been a wide variety of types of schools in each of those two categories. I think I may have learned some stuff about teaching, but I still feel like a rookie most of the time: like I still have a lot to learn. As this year ends, I thought I would share a few thoughts from my years as a teacher (and specifically this last year):

My wife was home sick, so I set my phone up on the lectern during the service... Horrible angle for the camera... but the sound was OK. I don't start preaching until 38:47.

Quote from last week's sermon... (A letter from Cyprian to his friend Donatus.) "this is a cheerful world indeed as I see it from my fair garden, under the shadow of my vines. But if I could ascend some high mountain, and look out over the wide lands, you know very well that I should see: brigands on the highways, pirates on the seas, armies fighting, cities burning, in the amphitheaters men murdered to please applauding crowds, selfishness and cruelty and misery and despair under all roofs. It is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a company of quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret. They have found a joy which is a thousand times better than any of the pleasures of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not: they are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the Christians,—and I am one of them." I found this quote in the book, Christ...

"Certain of my brethren are frequently in trouble. Their whole life is a floundering out of one slough of despond into another. You have had many losses in business -- nothing but losses perhaps; you have had many crosses, disappointments, bereavements; nothing prospers with you ... it is no sign, beloved, that you are not a child of God ... remember that none of your trials can prove you to be a lost man." Charles Spurgeon, as quoted by Zack Eswine in the book, Spurgeon's Sorrows

Every generation of Christian must face the question, “How far should I accept and adopt contemporary standards and practices? On the one hand, the Christian must not deny his faith. On the other, he must not deny his membership of society. The cause of Christ is not served if Christians appear as a group of old-fashioned people trying to retreat from the real world. Christians in fact live in the same world as their neighbors, and face the same problems.  Leon Morris, Tyndale New Testament Commentary Series: Revelation, pg 71-72

For a whole lifetime... In the Christian life there are two essentials, the ability to make the clear-cut decision at the crucial moment and the ability to plod on ... on the the Christian way for a whole lifetime. William Barclay, Letters to the Seven Churches , pg 77