We are in the middle of football season right now and, as anyone who knows me knows, I love the game of football. I love it so much that I have to be reminded often that it is just a game.
It is amazing to me how much some of the games we love in life have a lot of real life lessons in them. I was watching a game the other day when the announcer said that the ability to handle pressure was the difference between an average quarterback and a great quarterback. They went on to compare two quarterbacks, and said that the one quarterback had better raw talent and ability, but because he could not handle the pressure of winning the big games, he was not as good as the quarterback that had lesser ability.
How true to our own lives that is. It seems that the pressure of life is what utlimately determines what we really believe. Pressure will bring to the surface what is really inside of us. All too often in my life, the pressure I am under gives me clear insight into what is going on inside me. Pressure could care less what I say I am, or what I say I believe. Pressure is going to make me prove it.
Proving what we say our abilities are comes through pressure. I hate that, but it is true. So, in the National Football League the quarterbacks that get paid the most are the ones who can prove they can handle the pressure and win the game. Yes, I love football but I hate pressure, but that's what life and football have in common, and I need to be ready.
James 1:3 - "because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance."
Last weekend was awesome! I had the opportunity to spend some extended time with elders, pastoral staff, and some ministry department leaders and talk about some of the challenges and opportunities we have as a church to grow and reach our city, nation, and world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love our church and love the people God has raised up to bring life-changing ministry to our city! Hanging out with this group of people, and the many other servants in our church, is always life giving and encouraging to me, and it simply moves me to joy that causes me to dream big dreams for God.
Some of the great news I was able to share is that, as a church, we are seeing some incredible growth signs. In the last 16 months, we brought in almost 100 new partners. These are people who have taken our partnership class and have expressed a desire to be a part of the team here at Trinity. After our water baptism service this week we will have had 29 people be baptized in 2009, and in the past two years our average Sunday attendance has grown from around 290 to over 400. Can someone please jump up on a table and yell "Praise God!" The scripture that comes to my mind are the words of Jesus in Matthew 19:26, "With God all things are possible." On top of that, I had a great morning as I met with my mentoring group this morning and recounted how far each of us has come in the past few years, walking together as we follow hard after God. What an awesome (yes I said it again) couple of days.
Anyway - it is September and it is 80 degrees out! Yep, you guessed it - AWESOME!
What a great day we had on Sunday as we talked about HELL. Sounds bazaar that we will connect a great Sunday and the subject of Hell together but I really think the word spoke to us as we looked at what the Bible says in regards to the subject of Hell. I have had some great responses from people regarding this message. Several said that they could not ever remember ever hearing a sermon on Hell. Others commented on their hope and how Heaven became all the more real to them. The thing that sticks with me is the challenge we all have in living every day to the fullest but not living for just that day. You know what I mean? I believe that in light of what the Bible says about eternity I need to live everyday to the fullest but I also need to live it with eternity on my mind. Kind of the total opposite of the “eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die” mentality.
I hope you have a great week living with your eyes on heaven and your heart fully engaged.
WOW IS IT EVER HOT!!! Have you found yourself declaring that anytime over the past few weeks?
I have and when I have there has always been a bit of whininess to it. Kind of like “woe is me because my house isn’t air conditioned” or “woe is me because I cant sleep as well at night” and then I was reminded the other day of what we usually are complaining about in regards to the weather, it's to cloudy, to cold, to rainy, to gloomy, to dark, to muddy, etc. etc.
I think sometimes we are simply not happy if we are not complaining about something. We live almost as if we have to have something to complain about or we are not happy. Crazy isn’t it? You know there has been times that I have bumped into people I haven’t seen in awhile and we both exchange pleasantries and then one of us will complain about something and the other person will reciprocate by complaining about something and then we say good bye and move on. Like if we didn’t have something to complain about, we wouldn’t have anything to talk about at all. For some of us it has just become second nature and we really aren’t as bothered by what were complaining about at all we just complain without even thinking.
So... WOW IS IT EVER HOT - AND BOY DOES IT FEEL GOOD!!! Right?
What an awesome vacation! Our trip to England included cities like Holmfirth (big shout to our good friends Ian and Jen Gooch!), York, Scarborough, Dover, and London. Our trip to France included the city of Caen and the beautiful region of Normandy and of course Paris.
It was truly amazing to see the beaches of Normandy where 65 years ago men from many nations stormed these shores to liberate Europe from the wickedness of fascism. The visit to the American Cemetery was humbling, amazing and incredibly moving. The reality of standing there looking at more than 10,000 white crosses is overwhelming. It simply reminds me of how much we have to be thankful for as we have just finished celebrating the 4th of July.
The other cool reality is that people are people and we all seemed to be enjoying the same beautiful wonders and amazing things. Like when we were in the Louvre and were starring at the Mona Lisa. There were dozens of languages and nationalities in that room yet no one was concerned about who we all where but how amazing this timeless painting was.
We had a great time but it is also great to be home.
Man I am getting old! Everyday something happens to remind me, yet nothing seemed to make me feel quite so old as to see my second child Abbey graduate from high school. For a large part of that evening it made me sad to think of how fast time had flown by and how often I missed opportunities.
However, following the graduation as I saw all of the positive, exciting and complimentary remarks my daughter received from teachers, coaches and friends the sadness went away. I felt a sense of happiness, joy, pride and thanksgiving for the privilege it has been to participate in her life. I realized that part of getting older is relishing the fruitfulness of our lives and seeing others rise up and take there place in the world.
So if you are out there and struggling about feeling older, don’t look in the mirror!! Look at the fruit and the many things that are yet to be discovered.
What a great time we had in church today! However I gave us all a reminder that the preacher can now and then get caught up in the emotion of the message, the scripture and events of the day and totally make a silly statement during a message.
We were talking about Hannah and how she was a woman of grace. She was a lady who went through so much in waiting to have a child and was regularly persecuted by her rival Peninnah who had children. In the end we saw in 1 Samuel 1 that she does end up having a child and that child was named Samuel and he would serve the Lord in the temple all the days of his life. So here is where I blew it! As I was closing the message I made a statement that was completely inaccurate. I cant remember my exact words but I said something like this: “We don’t know if Hannah ever had anymore children but she kept her vow to bring Samuel to the temple to be raised” Well shortly after the end of the service someone very politely came up to me and reminded me that in 1 Samuel 2:21 it clearly says that God honored Hannah’s faithfulness and she ended up having 3 more sons and 2 daughters!
Now as soon as I said that in second service something ran through my mind that said, “WRONG!” I have no idea why I did not remember that fact! Hello Pastor Rollie DUHI! The scary thing is that as I was studying to prepare to preach the message from Chapter one I had read Samuel chapter 2 and 3 and have read the book of Samuel numerous times.
So what was the moral of this blog besides the fact that Rollie can blow it? Well the positive moral is that the bible is so full of information that just as you can forget certain facts at untimely moments it is also a reality that there are constantly new things to discover in the Bible and rediscover things that have been forgotten.
So for all those that heard it and knew I was mistaken thank you for not standing up and calling me out in the middle of the message and to you all I will try not to make that kind of mistake again however I am sure I will no matter how hard I try. So listen close you might just catch me making a booboo.
Well Mothers Day is over. The card isle at your local store will have all the Mothers Day cards pulled and replaced with Fathers Day cards. Flowers and candy will be less conspicuous and sadly just as all the Mothers Day paraphernalia will disappear so will a lot of the attention and affection we all endeavored to do our best to show. It is amazing how we as human beings move on to the next thing and all too often back to a world that revolves primarily around ourselves and our own wants, needs and desires.
Today my daughters, my wife Annette and my sister Julie drove up to Seattle today and had lunch at the infamous Red Mill burgers. We had a great time driving up and talking, laughing and telling stories but the thing that struck me the most (besides the burgers) was the incredible variety and diversity of people, clothing, styles and interests that were all gathered around this little burger joint. Everybody there was ordering some variety of burgers with some combination of fries, onion ringers, milk shakes and soda or all of the above. We seem to go out of the way to try and highlight how different we are but at that burger joint we were all hungry people looking to enjoy some great greasy food with people we know and love. What is so unique and different about that? I don’t know, I think we work to hard at seeking out our differences and exceptions as opposed to recognizing our similarities and common interests.
So all in all it was a great day together, however I am grateful the Red Mill is all the way up in Seattle or I would have a serious waistline issue and if you feel I already do please keep it to yourself.
We wrapped up the series on forgiveness last weekend and I am grateful for all of the help I received from all those who were bold enough to open their lives to so many others and share their stories of forgiveness, and thanks to David and Cally Uriarte for their work on the videos. The power of a testimony can never be underestimated. What struck me this past week was in the final message of forgiveness, as we looked at the story of the prodigal son and how we need to allow forgiveness to work in our lives if we are going to get beyond ourselves and live for a higher purpose. In the sermon, I relayed the story of the father’s relationship with the two sons and, in particular, the prodigal son's return home and how the Father ran to him, embraced him, and kissed him.
To model that scene in the Bible, in the first service I embraced and kissed my own 20-year old son, and in the second service I embraced and kissed my 17-year old daughter. Of all that I shared in that sermon, I got more feedback from that illustration. It really struck a cord with people because so many of us can identify with the son receiving the embrace, while also identifying with the father giving the embrace.
It has caused me to examine my own relationship with my kids: Alec, Abbey and Audrey, and ask myself how often I embrace them, kiss them, and love on them when no one is looking and it isn’t part of a sermon. Let me put it this way, for those of you who were there you know, it was a strong embrace and unapologetic kisses all over their faces. I haven’t done that very often and not for a very long time. Sure I have given those quick hugs and pecks, but truly embracing them and expressing my love for them, not so much. I must do better!
Let me encourage you to express your love and appreciation for your loved ones as well. There is a reason it impacted so many of us on Sunday, so take up the challenge and offer that which you yourselves want, desire and need.
Hello again! So my son informs me the other night that I have let every body down who has been logging on to my blog only to discover that I haven’t updated it in over two weeks! This just goes to show you how slow I am to pick up this high tech brand of communication. So as I was thinking about what to write about I was reminded of my little stop at Value Village the other night. I get great pleasure from pulling into my local Puyallup Value Village every now and then and rummaging through the men’s shirts section and picking up screaming hot deals. I have found shirts that when new are sold at places like Macy’s and Nordstrom’s for $50.00 to $80.00 but here they are only $5.00 or $10.00. Is anyone else out there with me?
So any way, I was there the other night and as I was searching for shirts an “older” gentleman came up to me and made a comment about the great deal I was finding in shirts, which I agreed with him on because one was only $4.99 and the other was only $6.99. He moved on to another part of the store and after a few more minutes browsing through some more shirts I walked up to the check out stand to purchase my awesome shirts. As I was waiting in line the same gentleman came up and stood in line right behind me and noticed my shirt selection and applauded my choices, but then with even greater enthusiasm showed me his great find. It was a shirt which was actually a bowling shirt that came from a bowling alley in Shelton Washington and had the name boldly printed on the back of the shirt with bowling pins displayed on the front and with even greater pride he showed that it only cost .99 cents!
As I complimented him on his selection and chuckled inside over his excitement over his .99 cent shirt, which he boldly declared to anyone who would listen, and as I enjoyed my own special deal it reminded me that such is the joy of living. Ultimately joy and a happy outlook is a decision, it’s a choice. If you choose to, a .99 cent shirt can provide as much joy as a $6.99 shirt or for that matter a $100.00 shirt depending on your outlook.
So look for the .99 cents moments in life that make you smile. They are just as effective as the $100.00 moments and you don’t have to charge it.