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Showing posts from 2010

Tis the Season

Our family Christmas celebrations start this weekend. That is just so incredibly weird for me to get my head around that. Already?!?!?! The past couple of months just seem like a blur... must be from all the drywall dust and paint fumes from my recent basement renovations :) I'm looking forward to celebrating with loved ones over the next couple of weeks. I'm excited to have family coming to the church to see the kids' Christmas play. I'm pumped for our very simple Christmas Eve service. I can't wait to see the looks on the kids' faces when they open their present on Christmas morning... they are going to LOSE THEIR MINDS! But even more I'm just SO incredibly grateful for all that God has done in my life this year. It wasn't a easy year by any means. We had tough decisions and hard choices to make... but God has been so faithful in all of this. It had a lot of stress. It had a lot of tears. It had a lot of stress (did I say that already??) Bu

What I'm Reading Now

I love reading. I read a lot. Actually, let me rephrase that. I USED to read a lot. Seems I've lost my reading groove since moving to the Ottawa area. Between getting settled at the new church, doing basement renovations, and living out of boxes my reading has really dropped. This month I'm making reading a priority again. I usually have a few books on the go at the same time, so here's what I'm reading now. The Grace of God by Andy Stanley . I have a number of friends who work for grace based ministries... so over the years I've been given multiple copies of books on the topic of grace. This one blows them all away!! I've actually restarted this book and will be going through it more slowly (I may even blog about what I'm learning). I love Stanley's understanding of God's grace in the Old Testament. I've seen very little (if any) references to the Old Testament in the other grace books I've read. Grace isn't just a New Testa

YouVersion Live

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I've been using YouVersion as one of my primary ways to read and study the Bible since October 2007. I use it to search for texts when prepping sermons. I use it for my daily Bible reading plan. I use it on my Blackberry so that I always have a Bible with me. And now I'm playing around with YouVersion Live to see how we can integrate that to our Sunday morning services. Why? Because I want to encourage people to get into reading the Bible for themselves and not just listening to me reading it to them every Sunday :) I love how with YouVersion Live we can create Events and have people point there with their smart phones for seeing the key Bible passages, polls, prayer requests forms and whatever else we can think of to tie in to the weekend service. In order to play around with this I've created an event for this coming Sunday. You can access it here . Have a look at it and let me know what you think.

Encourage One Another

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This Sunday I'm continuing our series on LIFE and living a life of encouragement. We are looking at the life of Barnabas and how he encouraged the early church. I'm reminded this morning of the verse in 1 Thessalonians 5:11 "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing." I am SO grateful for the men and woman who have encouraged me in my life. Especially those who have encouraged me in my spiritual walk with God. I remember too well the criticism I received from some people when I shared that I thought God was calling me to leave the IT profession and become a pastor. They were critical that God wouldn't use a new believer like me... or someone from my background... or someone without a masters degree and education. It was quite a discouraging and doubtful time. Was I just being conceited and prideful wanting to go into ministry? Was I not walking with God closely? But I had many others who were INCREDIBLY enco

How do you improve your preaching?

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I'm in the process of looking at my education and growth for next year. Going to seminary part time while working full time here at the church is an AWESOME way for me to continually grow and allow God to work on me to improve me. I'm also a big reader. I love reading different types of books to get better at ministry, pastoral care and leadership. And I like conferences and seminars. These are all great ways to learn and grow... I find that most of those help in a general leadership/pastor kind of way... but I'm finding it difficult to find resources to help me in my primary responsibility as a pastor here. Most books and conferences are hitting on leadership and specific ministries (evangelism, small groups, etc). I'm finding very little in the way of becoming a better communicator and speaker. I served as the Teaching Pastor. My key role is, obviously, teaching Sundays. The local Christian bookstore has nothing on improving preaching... the conference circuit

Mo Pastors Facebook page

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You can follow along and see the moustaches from the Pastors who have joined our team to raise awareness and support for prostate cancer by checking out our Facebook page . I'm sure it's going to be a fun good time of laughing and supporting one another as we join together in this great cause. Movember is going to be a great month! Be sure to follow along!

Thoughts on a GREAT Weekend!

This weekend was just awesome! Really was! I'm kicking off this week just pumped up and thanking God for all I was blessed with over the course of the past few days. Here's just some of the thoughts on this weekend. My parents came to visit so my step-dad could help rebuild my laundry room. I love doing reno work... but I'm not all that good at it. So it's great to have help from my step-dad with this stuff! We had quite the weekend redoing the plumbing and the electrical work for the washer and dryer. I learned a ton and feeling like I'm ready for any leaky pipes in the future :) It looks SOOO much better already and I can't wait to do more laundry. It was just so nice having dinner with family every night this weekend (Fri and Sat with my parents, and Sun with Danielle's sister). I'm so grateful for the family that God has blessed me with! This Sunday we had a family service at Greenbelt. It was great to have the kids join us for the sermon pa

Movember: Growing a Moustache for a Great Cause

Sometimes what starts as a laugh turns into something more... To be honest, when I first learned about Movember yesterday, I chuckled and thought that was it. But after praying about it and chatting with my family, I'm totally sold on this and excited to be a part of it! The 'Mo', slang for moustache, and November come together each year for Movember . Each Movember men are challenged to change their appearance and the face of men's health by growing a moustache. The moustache is our ribbon, the means by which we raise awareness and funds for prostate cancer. Much like the commitment to run or walk for charity, my commitment is to grow a moustache for 30 days. Funds raised benefit Prostate Cancer Canada. Why am I doing this? To be honest, and it's kind of sad to admit this, when it comes to health issues I'm incredibly ignorant. Even though I serve as a pastor and come along side people in times of need, I'm totally clueless on medical issues and th

Masks

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I gotta admit. I love costumes and getting dressed up. Always have... and probably always will. I dream of the day when I'll have this incredibly cool costume that would win me all the prices at every Comic book convention... but I digress. I've been reading a lot this week about Moses and his veil. In Exodus we read how Moses' face would shine because of the glory of God... but then it would start to fade. It's been challenging to me to think how do I allow God's glory in me to fade. Is it even possible? If I have the spirit of God in me, does it ever fade? There are times when I feel my life is shining bright with God's glory... and others, well, not so much. This Sunday I'm preaching on this text and Paul's comment on it found in 2 Corinthians. I'm looking forward to unpacking it and sharing with the entire congregation since this will be my first Family Service at Greenbelt (normally the kids grade 1 to 5 go to KidZone). I'm always a

Loving Our Neighbours

This morning in our men's community group we discussed the parable of the Good Samaritan and Jesus' reminder that the greatest commandment is to love God with all our being and to love our neighbours as ourselves. We had a great discussion about what that looks like in our culture and how it impacts some of the difficult issue that come up in people's lives. Our talk really hit home in my heart this morning... especially being in a new community again. Before, in our previous home, it was VERY easy to make connections with our neighbours since everyone was pretty much a young family like ours. We could easily connect just based on the common ground we had with the age of our kids. In fact, every evening a large number of families would meet up at the park across from our house and the adults would socialize while the kids played. Now, we find ourselves in a new city. And we moved into a community where, as of yet, I have not seen a single child. The house is nearly 40

Go Waste Some Time

I've been doing a lot of reading on Sabbath keeping in order to prepare this Sunday's message. I've been skimming through Mark Buchanan's book The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath . GREAT STUFF! I particularly like the chapter called Play: Stopping Just to Waste Time. Why? Because he recommends to his readers to go and read a comic book! Ok. That's not the only reason. Play is such a big part of our lives as kids... and somewhere, somehow that goes away with the increased demands on our lives. It's interesting how it even affect how I play with my own kids... We love family game night in our house... but I find myself so scheduled with it sometimes that it can actually take the fun out of it. I begin to stress about it when we've passed bedtime... or if there are other things on my mind... or worrying that I should be finishing the basement. In those times, play just doesn't feel like play. It feels like obligation. God has

Get Some Rest

This week I've been yawning like crazy. I've been having a hard time getting a good night's sleep and feeling a little restless. Normal, I'm sure, considering the recent move and all the renovations we're doing around the house... Next Sunday I'm preaching on the importance of keeping Sabbath. Not as a legalistic, religious tradition... but rather as a privilege and as part of our wireing as people created in the image of a Sabbath keeping God. I'm learning a ton re-exploring this topic. I've not always been a good Sabbath keeper. This past year I've gotten a lot better at it. This afternoon, while studying, I was just reminder of what Jesus told his followers after they've been doing the work of the ministry like crazy. Jesus told them in Mark 6:31: "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." I love that Jesus didn't say "Go somewhere by yourselves and get some rest" but rather he wanted them t

Be Joyful Always?

I'm always amazed at how it's the little, tiny verses in the Bible that really seem to stretch and challenge me the most. This week I was reading 1 Thessalonians... and verse 5:16 really hit a cord in me. Be joyful always. Very small. Very simple. Easy to skim over. But how am I doing in that area of my life? Am I joyful always? In every situation that I find myself in, am I joyful? Or do I allow myself to get grumpy and crabby? Is my joy only situational? When things are good and I'm content, I'm joyful? How can I work at always being joyful? The next two verses give the answer: pray continually; & give thanks in all circumstances! Pray for me is not simply a 20 minute prayer time in the morning to kick start my day... but rather a continuous conversation during the day. Sure, from time to time, I'm doing most of the talking... but when I find those quiet moments during the day when I can just chill and listen then I find myself more joyful and more

What Are You Expecting Today?

This morning in my Men's Community Group we very briefly touched on the question "Do you live each day expecting great things from God?" Do I? Do I expect God to show up in mighty and miraculous ways today? Do I expect great things today... or is it just another day... just another sermon to finish... just more emails to answer... just more phone calls to make. I choose to live my life trusting in the incredible and powerful nature of God! I know that God can show up in the big events and the tiny details of life. I know God is great and he is doing great things all around me. I'm expecting something GREAT today! How about you?

Getting Settled and Rested

Hard to believe we've only been here in Ottawa for a full two weeks... with the amount of work that's gone into getting our home set up you'd think we've been here a lot longer! :) Kids are settled into their new schools. Danielle has started her new job. And I'm learning the ins and outs of the church here. Last night was a nice quiet evening... even though there was more work around the house that I could have been doing, I simply relaxed and got caught up on some much deserved rest. It's funny how rest just doesn't come naturally to me. There's a something in me that just wants to keep working. With a basement to finish and repairs around the house I could easily be busy all my waking hours. Yesterday was a great reminder for me to take time to just relax and listen to God. In my message on the Journey of Obedience yesterday I touched on Exodus 15:26 "If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in

The Journey

Life is full of different journeys. Some journeys bring us to far off places. Others are journeys of transformation... journeys that when we reach the destination, we are no longer the same. Yesterday, I began a new 4 week preaching series called The Journey. A lot of it has come from the journey that my family and I have been on over the past few months. Just last week, we moved from the Waterloo-region to our nation's capital, Ottawa. This was a journey that had us on our knees a lot in prayer, and LOTS of discussions with mentors and friends. The journey was exciting, nerve-racking, sad, joyful, confusing, and faith building. It's quite amazing all the different emotions you can go through when God is prompting! I kicked off the series talking about our Journey of Faith and the questions that can hinder the journey that God wants to send us on. Who am I? Who are you? What if? Why not someone else? These where the questions that Moses asked God at the burning bush

Crazy Week

This past week I had the honor and the privilege to be a part of different people's lives. First on Monday I performed a funeral for the grandfather of a young man who is connected to our church. Then I Saturday I officiated the wedding for my cousin. It's such a blessing to be asked to be a part of these occasions. In times of sorrow and joy God's hand is all over the situation and it's so cool to see that at work. I've had so many wonderful experiences meeting new and fascinating people through these two events. My thoughts and prayers are with each and every one of them this week. To be honest, I'm still floored that God would use just an average Joe like me for this type of work... it just reminds me SOOOO much of how incredibly God's love is for me and for all people! I never want to take the gift that he's given me for granted....

Happy Birthday Cameron!

Today is my son Cameron's 9th birthday! That is SOOOO hard to believe! I'm so proud of the young man that he is. He is developing such a caring and generous heart for people and the hurting. He is also a real hoot to hang out with! He's constantly cracking us up with his wit and humour. Happy Birthday Buddy! Love ya tons!

One Prayer Wrap Up

Hard to believe the month of June has come and gone! At LifeSpring we wrapped up our One Prayer series yesterday, and I gotta say it was probably BY FAR the best series since I've been at this church! Here are just a few of the highlights from the past month. Yesterday's prayer time was AWESOME. Great to hear people confessing their sins and asking for God's blessing as we begin the new At The Movies series next week. Don't know what the amount was... but I'm guessing by the weight of the collection basket that our special One Prayer offering was more then our regular giving! Can't wait to hear how God will use that gift for his glory. Our Celebration Pastor Intern has done INCREDIBLE work with our worship and tech teams! Sunday mornings feel like a completely different place! The teaching during One Prayer was incredible. Craig Groeschel, Steven Furtick, Dino Rizzo and Kevin Thomas are incredibly anointed men of God! Their messages challenged and encoura

Back to Summit

This past year I used a Life/Ministry Coach to work with our leadership team to take the teachings from Willow Creek's Leadership Summit and make them applicable to our team and ministry. Here's why. As a pastor it’s not always easy to invest in the church's leaders as much as I would like to. Sending the team to a yearly conference may ease that guilty conscience a little, but doesn't have very long term impact on the lives of the leaders or on their ministry in the church. Participating this year in Back to Summit has made a huge difference in our church! Instead of being simply great motivating talks from some of the world’s best leaders, we were able to make each message applicable to our personal walk with God and to shape and strengthen our church for the future. Working with Joel has greatly increased my effectiveness as a leader in the local church. Through our times together prepping for the Back to Summit sessions, he has been able to help me develop my min

Trust and Obey

I'm not a hymn guy. AT ALL! In fact, good old fashion hymn-sings are flat out scary to me. Remember, I didn't grow up in church and the "classics" are not classics to me... they are completely foreign to me. Anyways, that's a rant for another day :) This afternoon I do have the song "Trust and Obey" floating around my head. Here is a great updated version of this song if you're not familiar with it (if reading this on Facebook, click this LINK ). I'm really learning a lot lately about trusting and obeying. I'm learning more and more how little answers I actually have to a lot of big questions, in ministry and in family life. I'm learning more and more that with every step I take in faith God is with me in it! I may not know exactly what He has in store for me, but I know that I can keep on walking, trusting and obeying Him! And that's a really cool spot to be! God isn't impressed with my leadership skills or my plan. He&

Why I Participate in One Prayer!

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This morning I was challenged with the thought of why does my church participate in One Prayer ? Not only that, I pushed even further as to why should we record my preaching message and submit it to be potentially used by other churches participating in One Prayer? I have wonderful people in my life who stretch me and challenge me. I'm so appreciative of their love and support as I seek God in all areas of my life and ministry... and this challenge this morning really pumped me and and encouraged me. Are my reasons for participating in One Prayer to build me up? Or my reputation? Is it so I can play with the "big boys pastors" as well? Or so I can be cool? Is it because I have big church ministry envy? Or because I have secret pastor-crush on Craig Groeschel? Great... I'm guessing now my reputation is completely shot and that's the only statement everyone will remember LOL! :) I participate in One Prayer because it gives me a much BIGGER picture of God! L

Facebook

No surprised to anyone that I'm a big tech and computer nut. I love playing around with new technology and learning on how it can be leveraged to make the church more effective in reaching more and more people. On the LifeChurch.tv blog is a FANTASTIC article on their plans for creating campus pages on Facebook! You can read it by clicking here . I love this! I think their points are bang on. I've played around with a basic Facebook page and would love to get ours to a higher level of functionality and use. So... any Facebook experts out there wanna help get our page done? :)

PUMPED for Easter!

Easter is the BIG DAY for me! Not Christmas! Why? Because Christianity isn't worth the price of the paper my Bible is written on if the Resurrection didn't happen! It's ALL about the truth that Jesus is ALIVE! If it was just about a good, moral teacher being born in a manger it would all mean nothing. It's about an empty tomb! It's about a Saviour paying for my sin! It's about his ascension to heaven to advocate to the Father on my behalf. It's all about Easter! AND I'M PUMPED! I've been praying for BIG things to happen this weekend. I'm trusting James 1:6 when it says "But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind." I've been asking and believing God is going to work in the hearts of people BIG TIME this weekend! Hope you believe that too!

Spiritual Momentum in My Life

One of my big take aways at last week's Catalyst ONE DAY conference was how am I ensuring spiritual health in my life. As a pastor, it's so easy to run myself ragged and crazy trying to meet all the needs that I see around me. Ever since I've gone into ministry I've let my calendar control me... I've been at the mercy of not enough time to complete the big tasks because of the distracting tasks. I was really inspired when Craig Groeschel and Andy Stanley shared what their weekly schedule looks like. I was inspired that I really need to put a schedule together so I can really ensure my spiritual momentum and physical health. The guideline is just a guideline... not written in stone... obviously life happens and I'm very flexible with that... but I'm praying this will help manage expectations at the church and create margin in my life for God to do great things in my heart! So here is the work in progress of my schedule. I'm no expert in doing this so

A Year Already

Hard to believe, but this week marks ONE YEAR since I've been the Lead Pastor at LifeSpring Christian Fellowship. Where does the time go??? I am incredibly humbled and blessed to have the privilege of pastoring this church. God has really been stretching me, challenging me and growing me as I serve here. Hopefully he's been doing that to the people who attend LifeSpring as well :) Here's a couple of things that I've learned over the course of the year that have really grown me spiritually: I care less what people think about me. Now, this may sound harsh... but it's SO true. My role is not to get people to like me... my role is to help people grow spiritually. The spiritual gift of shepherd is to love people so much as to not leave them as they are. If I was just concerned with having people like me then I would be too scared and nervous to speak God's truth. It is impossible to pastor a church while concerned that every body likes me. Truth is... I ca

Back from Catalyst!

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WOW!!!! That's all can say right now! Yesterday experience at Catalyst was just incredible! And I gotta admit... God really wrecked me! I've never felt closer to God than I did on my knees yesterday, crying in his presence! I'm still processing all that God had to say to me through this event. I'll be blogging about it next week as it all becomes clearer. I'm so grateful to everyone involved in putting on Catalyst One Day! Thanks to Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel for just bringing it!! I was so encouraged and minister to. Picked up Craig's new book, The Christian Atheist. Started reading it this afternoon! Was awesome to meet him and others from the LifeChurch.tv team. Their ministry has been such a wonderful blessing to me in my personal walk with God. When people ask who pastors me, Craig Groeschel is on the top of that list. Praising God today for all that he has in store for me and my journey with Him! (Picture of Danielle and I with Craig

The Christian Atheist

I'm so looking forward to reading Craig Groeschel's latest book ! I'm hoping that I can pick up a copy of it next week at the Catalyst One Day event. Check out this video promo of the book!

March Book Suggestions

Here are a couple of books I'm recommending this month! Check out the video below (if you're on Facebook you can see the video HERE ). You can order the books here: The Prodigal God Switch

Happy Anniversary!

Today is my 11th wedding anniversary to my awesome and incredible wife Danielle! I consider myself so incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful friend and partner as my wife! I'm blown away by the wonderful person she is... and to be honest... I'm STILL shocked that he settled for a geek like me :-) It's an honor and a privilege to share our lives together! Happy Anniversary Sweetie! I love you SOOOOOO much!

Six Things... Actually Seven #4

Took a bit of a break on this... In Proverbs 6:16-19 we read about the things that God hates. Here's number 4: A Heart that Plots Evil I can hear your sigh of relief. COOL! I don't plot evil. Are you sure about that??? Sometimes our definition of "evil" may not be the same as God's. Sure... we see acts of evil in the world all the time. Crime. Corruption. Slavery. Abuse. Genocide. Murder. Those are pretty easy to detect, and I'm pretty sure none of us have done those... But in Matthew 5 Jesus shows us that our rules and guidelines are not the same as his. Jesus tells us that just looking at a woman with lust is adultery, not the act of sexual infidelity. He tells us that thinking angry thoughts about people is murder, not simply the act of taking another person's life. His definition of "evil" and "sin" are a LOT harsher than what we would call evil. So, don't be too quick to say that your heart doesn't plot evi

Book Reviews

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Thought I'd try something new on the blog! Video book reviews. I'm a big reader... and I want to read even more this year! I'm a big BIG believer in the concept that as the pastor learns and grows than the church will learn and grow! Reading has been a huge part of my ministry this past three years and I'm know that God will continue to teach me more and more. So check out the video below. If you're reading this on Facebook, click this link HERE . Here are the books mentioned in the video. The Imperfect Board Member by Jim Brown Ten Stupid Things that Keep Churches from Growing by Geoff Surratt

The Prodigal God

Starting on February 28th, I'll be preaching for five weeks on the parable of the Prodigal Son from Luke 15. Now... five weeks may seem long for just one little parable... but this simple little story that Jesus told to religious leaders has HUGE impact on us as followers of Jesus. I've been reading the book The Prodigal God from Timothy Keller and just LOVE IT! I took my leadership team through a message by Keller at the Willowcreek Leadership Summit last month... and now we're going to go through it in much greater detail as a church. I'm praying hard and excited to see all that God will do in us and through us as we explore this parable in our Sunday Celebration and discuss it during our mid-week LifeGroups. It's going to be GREAT! This would also be a excellent time to invite people who are quite skeptical about the Christian message!

Silent Day of Prayer

Been a busy and crazy week... I'll get back to my look at the 7 things God hates next week... But first, I'm REALLY reminded of the importance of being still before a Holy God and just listening quietly for his direction and will for my life. One day a month, my wife and I go to Loyola House in Guelph, Ontario for a full day of silent prayer and contemplation. I'm just amazed at how refreshed and pumped up for ministry I am after these quiet days. My creativity and energy are HUGELY increased just by spending one day a month in total silence! This new discipline has been great and I strongly recommend it to every one, especially church leaders! In fact, I'd love to incorporate this even more into my regular weekly routine. Maybe a day a week just quiet and still with God! How much more would God accomplish in me and through me if I did that??? I'll have to give that a shot to find out :) So today I'll be praying about a number of things: I've been pre

Six Things... Actually Seven #3

According to Proverbs 6:16-19 there are six things, no, wait... seven things that God hates. As a father of two young kids this next one is really hitting home. #3 Hands that Kill the Innocent It's obvious by just watching the news or internet news feeds that the world is just crazy and children are exploited and mistreated all over the world. Abuse, malnutrition, sex trade, slavery, extreme poverty... all of those are a sad, sad reality for children everywhere. But something a little closer to home is hitting me as a middle-class Canadian dad. How do I, as a dad, kill the innocence in my children??? No. Really. Is there anything that I do in my life that kills their innocence? In Luke 17:2 Jesus said that it's better to be thrown into the sea with a large rock tied around your neck than causing a little child to fall into sin. That's a pretty tough statement! In our culture today, kids are exposed to so many things that they really shouldn't have access to. Th

Six Things... Actually Seven #2

Continuing to look at the six things, I mean seven things, that God hates according to Proverbs 6:16-19. Today we see one that appears pretty obvious... #2 A Lying Tongue So God hates it when we lie. Is there any surprise there? But I find this remember quite challenge this morning... not that I really consider myself someone who lies a lot... but how easy it is to stretch and not be honest about how things are going in order to make myself look better than I am. We all do it. We want people to think we have everything all together. We want people to think we're smart enough and talented enough. And the last thing we Pastors want is for people to think that we don't have all the answers :) So we lie. We keep information to ourselves. We don't really let people get to know the real us. When we live that way I think that way, pretending to be better than we are, I think we distance ourselves from God and how he wants us to be living. So may prayer today is that God

Six Things... Actually Seven #1

This morning in my One Year Bible reading I was really hit with the reminder in Proverbs 6:16-19 on the six things, no, wait... seven things that God hates. This was VERY powerful in my heart this morning... so, for for the next six days... no, seven days, I want to blog about each of the six, I mean seven, things. #1 Haughty Eyes The proverb starts with saying that God hates and even detests haughty eyes. Now, I admit... I had to look the word "haughty" up in the dictionary. Here's what it said: disdainfully proud; snobbish; scornfully arrogant; supercilious . Ouch! This is a powerful reminder of how God wants us to treat everyone! We all can quote how God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son... we love the idea the God loves us... but do we love the idea that God has called us to love everyone??? Even the people we don't like??? So, this morning I'm praying for my eyes... and the eyes of everyone in my church! Do I have haughty eyes? Do

It's that time of year!

WOW!!! 2010! Can't believe it's actually 2010 and I STILL don't have rocket boots or a flying car! What's the deal with that! :) For the past number of years I've challenged myself (and everyone else who reads this blog) to really get into reading your Bible regularly! I just don't know how Christians in our North American culture can walk closely with God without spending regular time in his Word... This will be my sixth year doing The One Year Bible. Some years are better than others for getting the entire Bible read... I usually end up around 85-95% of the Bible read each year doing this method. This year I'm going for %110! Also, I like to start each of my reading times with a short prayer. I pray the same thing each and every day for the entire year. It's been pretty amazing to see God work through those simple prayers. Here's the list from the past few years: 2005: Give a passion for God's Word, his people, his world and his servi