The Word and the Work: Thoughts on Preaching, Pastoring, and the Christian Life

How many people can honestly say that they know what it is like to get their backside worn out by their Mom or Dad?  I know I can.  Don't worry Mom the statute of limitations on child abuse has run out so I can talk about this without fear of you getting locked up.  I have had my behind WHUPPED more times than I care to remember, and looking back I remember some of them quite well so I want to share. My Mom will tell you she remembers the last time she spanked me.  I remember it too. Mostly I remember thinking that somehow I got in trouble for being really good at a game.  My best friend Michael, myself, and some other kids were playing hide and seek and me and the aforementioned Mikey decided that the best place to hide would be on the roof behind the chimney.  Great plan.  Nobody could find us.  Except for Mom that is.  I remember her yelling something about getting a certain part of my body down off the roof right this instant.  After placing the fear of God in my friends the

Wow, Have I fallen behind keeping up with this blog.  Why? Well, for example, right now I have a two page paper one day overdue that is needing to be written. Poor planning and procrastination caught up with me again.  However, this is not what I intended to comment on today.  Today, God has asked me a question I am having trouble answering:  Is it possible to have contentment and still have ambition?  Hmmmmm.... I would say that it is.  Maybe that is just wishful thinking or arrogance, but I do believe there is a way to walk that line.   Right now I am as happy as I have ever been with the way my family life, career, and even my educational situation as I have ever been.  Yet, there is still so much I want to accomplish.  I still have ambitions.  These two things do not have to remain mutually exclusive. The real test is motivation. Is my ambition tied to the mission God has for my life?  If it is then I have nothing to repent of.  If not, then I have just made an idol.  Anyon

So here it is, Monday morning.  It is a glorious morning weather wise here in North Central Virginia.  We have had a wonderful two weeks of weather. I even think the 2 feet of rain was okay on Saturday.  This morning I have been pondering a few things.  After staying up late to finish some last minute homework I watched some old Disney cartoons and it got me thinking.  Am I a horrible person for laughing at the way Chip and Dale always get the best of Donald Duck?  I mean after all they are continually bullying him and taking things that are not theirs.  The particular cartoon I watched last night Donald was being a good conservationist and planting acorns to grow some trees, but Chip and Dale needed said acorns for their winter food supply and took it upon themselves to take them and hilarity ensued.  This was obviously before their Rescue Ranger days.  If you don't know what Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers is then you are un American and probably don't

I have been privileged in my life to know some great and godly men.  The men that I have matured under have undoubtedly been more of the Old School flavor than the new.  This sometimes puts me at odds philisopically with others of my generation of ministers.  I used to wonder if maybe I was carrying on in the  fashion of a movement that was dead and gone, but I have come to the conclusion that this is not the case. Understand, I am not throwing rocks at this more modern way of teaching, leading, and preaching.  Some of my very best friends are of this cut and I would no more doubt their faithfulness than my own.  I do know, however, that through this new church attitude there are thousands being left in the lurch.  For every coffee house style church plant there is probably two old country churches that are faithful, and they need someone to preach to them too. Funny modern church service parody here.   Sure, it is not easy to butt our heads against the rock wall of stubbornness in s

You ever had it?  You ever had that moment when something that never made sense to you finally clicked in your mind?  Maybe it was algebra, maybe operating some vile piece of computer software, or maybe it was finally getting your universal remote to be truly universal.  These are simple examples, but there is nothing that compares with not knowing something one second, and then instantly you know it.  Most likely when you have these moments it is a piece of knowledge that will stick with you forever.  There are two reasons that this subject is on my heart this morning.  The first is that I was witness to one of these moments recently.  Holy Spirit decided to jump into our TeamKID meeting and really bring home some understanding.  A group of around 20 kids between 7 and 12 really understood what was being taught.  Usually a few get it, but this time it was a vast majority.  There must be a need in this particular area because the younger kids class also had a similar experience.  It

And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure- 2 Corinthians 12:7 Here we see Paul, discussing the thorn in his flesh.  There have been many theories as to what exactly this thorn was.  They range from depression to malaria and everything in between.  Some say it was psychological, some say it was physical, while yet others believe it had to do with his memories of his past.   Let's just say we do not know exactly what it was.  What we do know is that Paul dealt with some issue on a near continual basis.  Paul said that this was an attack from Satan, but it was also used of God to keep him humble. I guess my question is this:  What is your thorn in the flesh?  Is there something in your life that you cannot pray away?  I'll bet there is.  It may be a physical ailment, or it may be your past lurking, waiting to pop

I have been letting it stew in me all weekend.  I have shrugged it off.  I have talked to God with no real assurance.  I have racked my brain for an excuse.  The inescapable truth is that as a minister, a follower of Christ, and a leader of young people I dropped the ball.  Let me tell you this story so that you may not do the same. Friday night my lovely wife Sarah and I took a Wal-Mart trip to Culpeper, Virginia.  Because I ignored an initial warning sign my car gave me we ended up broken down on the side of the highway between Culpeper and Orange.  It was bad enough to be broken down, but it was worse to be broken down with two little boys who were already up past their bedtime.  To make matters worse I did not have my cell phone for the first time ever and my wife had few if any numbers of people from the church or friends that we might call for assistance.   Thankfully, Sarah was able to get in touch with the Lee family. W.T., who I am recommending for Baptist sainthood, dro

Today, I have decided to really give a kick start to everyone's weekend and write about sin.  I know it is everyone's favorite thing to discuss.  Joel Osteen has probably felt a disturbance in the force and is shifting uncomfortably in his seat right now.  This has been on me since I opened my Bible this morning so do not say you were not warned.  Conviction abounds in my heart, we will see if it is contagious Now I decided this morning to do some study in Romans.  Joel Gregory(not Osteen) calls Romans the crown jewel of Scripture, and perhaps he is right.  If I had to pick two books of the Bible to study in for the rest of my life I would choose Romans and Hebrews because almost everything in God's story is represented in one book or the other.  Now the particular passage of Romans that I got stuck on is Romans 1:28-32.  It reads: 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They wer

One way that my wife Sarah and I differ greatly is our level of appreciation for well thought out alliteration when it comes to sermon points.  I tried to do it for this blog post but there was just not another "P" word I cared to discuss. Anyways, today I am in the middle of recovering from a binge of procrastination.  I was doing well but the temptation came in the form of a trip we took for a wedding(get to that later), a power outage(third P?), and even spending time with my children.  That's right there are actually times when I would rather spend time with my boys rather than do my school work.  This is my school work I am talking about here.  I would love to procrastinate at work sometimes, but I could not handle the stress.  I am not built that way.  I wonder why it is different for school?  Maybe I dont value my online educational experience.  Actually, I probably just do not like doing discussion boards designed to make my class interactive.  Online cl

As I write this I should be writing papers, assignments, and other things.  However, I needed a break from writing so I decided to write.  Makes sense, write(right)?  Anyways, as far as things go it has been a fairly good summer so far.  It has been less than crazy hot until just this last week, ministry is going very well, and for the most part my children and wife are doing quite well. Usually, this is where I might delve off into something theological, philosophical, or even political, but not today.  I am here to say that, as mentioned in a post around my birthday, I am an old man trapped in a young man's body.  That being said I am going to have an Old Man gripe session for a minute. Why in the name of everything that is good and decent do people not read anymore.  I don't mean they don't read much, they don't read good material, but that they do not read.  The average American could not tell you anything of the classics.  Homer? Virgil? Shakespeare? Chaucer? I

This is not a birthday plug.  I don't even want Facebook comments if I can escape them.  It is just I think that I have come to the realization that it is very possible I was born about 50 years later than I should have been.  I know what you are thinking, "You could not write and share this if you were almost 80 years old".  Let me outline the argument.  Number One- Simplicity-Growing up in the 40s and 50s life was simpler, especially where I am from.     Anyone who knows me will tell you that my weak point is that I tend to over analyze and over think.  My nostalgic mind tells me there might be some beauty in going home from work and not having one of three different types of electronic devices for me to indulge my ever curious mind. Number two- Entertainment-  How far and how low our entertainment has come.  There are myriads of things that can ensnare and detract from the things that really matter.  There is a generation of men that are throwing their entire liv

God is love, God is merciful, God is full of Grace, God loves everyone. Yes.... and God can hate.  People do not like this truth, but it does not keep it from being true.(because its truth you see)  "Well, maybe God just hates sin."  Absolutely God hates sin.  He despises it.  If we could truly comprehend the offense that our sin is to a holy God our heads would probably explode.  As a side note, read the whole post if you want to fight with me about this topic.  I welcome discussion. God says in Proverbs 6:16 and following: There are six things that the Lord hates,      seven that are an abomination to him: 17  haughty eyes, a lying tongue,      and hands that shed innocent blood, 18  a heart that devises wicked plans,      feet that make haste to run to evil, 19  a false witness who breathes out lies,      and one who sows discord among brothers So, haughty eyes is something God hates.  If you did not already come to the conclusion, this

There are days when I finish most of what needs to be accomplished at work and I get to study a little more, pray a little more, or get ahead for next week.  Sometimes like everybody else I end up reading news stories that really are of little or no importance.  Does it really matter that some recently divorced liberal over at the Huffington Post wrote a column proposing the government not allow people to marry before age 25? Article here No, it does not.  Our culture does not even realize the meaning of marriage anymore so why listen to the drivel.  Fathers day is coming up and it has weighed on my mind.  These past few days I have been thinking about the beauty of having mentors or being one.  I do not mean a once a week 30 minute interaction at the Boys and Girls club.  That is okay, but in my world I am talking about the men that have truly affected the way I live my life and do my ministry.  I am blessed beyond imagination in this department. First and foremost(in the human r

Saturday Night. For most people it is the night for leisurely activities. For me it is usually very calm. Sundays are always busy with church activities. I am trying to start this blog. Probably for selfish reasons. Maybe I think that people honestly care what I have to say about things. Anyhow, maybe I will talk about my family,my ever continuing education, my crazy summer, or going fishing, but one thing is for sure I will talk about Jesus. If you do not want to hear about Him, you might as well sign off my blog page. Today was a very interesting day. I went to the Orange County graduation ceremonies and saw Dalton Harlow and Parker Hogsten graduate. Congratulations to them for being the first graduates since I became the youth pastor at Zion.  I do not know if you guys will ever read this but here is my subtle attempt at advice. No matter where you go or what you do surround yourself with faithful Christians that will support you. It is so easy to fall away from Je