What's Been Going On...

It has been a long time since I've posted anything! Wow! I am going to try and make this blog much more of a regular thing. But before I get into that, let me tell you a little about what has been going on lately... I promise that this is the condensed version... :)

--Back in early May, my wife, Christina, was having some real bad pain in her abdomen. No, she's not pregnant (just in case you're wondering). It turns out that her gall bladder went bad! So we had it taken out on May 8th. But, she didn't seem to be getting any better. A week or so later, she developed pnemonia. After a week of heavy meds, she still wasn't any better. We took her to the E.R. and they said she had asthma. After two weeks of heavy steriods and breathing treatments, she seemed better... Goo enough, in fact, to go on a mission trip to Honduras for 10 days. When she returned, however, she was much worse.... Long story short, after another stay in the hospital, dozens of tests, and a trip to the OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER, it was discovered that she has vocal cord displacement. In other words, her vocal cords close when she inhales, rather than open. This is a rare side-effect of being intibated during surgery.

--So for the last 1 and 1/2 months, we've been staying at my parent's house because they have central AC and since mom is a nurse, she can monitor Christina's progress...

-- BTW, Christina is doing much better! Praise Jesus! She goes to see a specialist next week, so hopefully we're almost out of the woods...

-- The last few months have been very trying for us as a couple and individually. God has really been teaching us some crucial life lessons. I hope to share more of those over the coming days and weeks...

For now, just know that we're both doing well and that we appreciate the prayers and support of all our friends and family. We've missed out on a lot lately, but we've also gained so much through this... God Bless you and remember... THE BEST IS YET TO COME!

Eden's Fall Festival

On Saturday, Eden had it's 2nd Fall Festival and it was incredible! We had a great turnout-- around 70 people! Now I realize that 70 people may not seem like a lot to some of you, but when you consider that Eden has an average attendance of 35 and that last year we had maybe 40 people, 70 is a great number! The best thing about our turnout was the fact that God is the noe that brought it all together.
I am just so amazed that God has blessed Eden and so thankful! We had a number of volunteers step up and step out to serve others. We gave out invitations during trick or treat in Reedsville and that also helped to get the word out. I loved the attitude that Carla Browning-- who headed up the festival-- has. When I thanked her for all that she did, she said that it wasn't her. She said that it was all God and that He used others to step up. Isn't that great!?!? If more people at Eden have this attitude, God is going to be doing some incredible things both though and at Eden UB Church.
Some general thoughts about the festival:

• We had some pretty neat things... 2 packed hayrides, a "fish pond" for kids, a pumpkin toss, face painting, a cake walk, general store, and great food!
• We did accept donations at the festival BUT let me explain! All the donations recieved will go entirely to our Christmas outreach. I don't believe that churches should ever have "fundraisers" to pay to keep the lights on. That is the duty of the membership of the congregation.
• I don't like "Charging" for things like this... but... We've found that many people in our community are very skeptical of anything free. We've had free events before and advertising them as free and people did not show up. But if we post suggested prices and donations that are very low, we increase our impact many times.
• We made some great connections! The Fall Festival is an outreach but not an evangelistic one per se. We did however make people feel comfortable at Eden and introduce ourselves to build up a report with others so they will eventually come to Eden.

More to come, but thanks to everyone who came! God is awesome!

Sunday Reflections (September 6, 2009)

I haven't blogged in a while but I really do have a good excuse! The house where Christina and I live has no high-speed internet access. The only time I am really online anymore is when I visit my parents (10 minutes away) and usually it is only to check my email. But enough with the excuse, on to my point!

Sunday was an awesome time at Eden UB! We are in our third week of a series called Revealed and the message was called Undecided. The Bible passage is Revelation 3:14-22. Some general reflections of yesterday:
- Our crowd has been smaller the last few weeks because of youth football leagues. I am a fan of football and I understand it's family time. Parents, just make sure your kids realize that Jesus is greater that a touchdown.
-Revelation is a mysterious book to most of us, but it doesn't have to be. Yeah, there area lot of things about Jesus that we will not understand until we get to heaven, but we don't need to complicate them and that is just what many people have done with the last book of the Bible.
-This series is not an in-depth look at the "end times". Why? Because no one knows for sure how it's going down and my job is to proclaim truth, not theories.
-By the way, Revelation is so much more than simply a book about the end times, it is a book on worship! The summation of the book is this:

• Jesus is Mighty and Awesome
• Jesus is Lord of the Church and He has expectations of us
• Jesus is deserving of our worship
• Heaven is incredible
• Jesus is coming back soon and to defeat evil forever.

- Christina has been sick the last week. I took her to the Emergency Room Friday for lower abdominal pain (and no, she is not pregnant.... almost everyone has asked that). She has a 1 1/2 inch cyst on her ovary, so pray for her.
- When Christina is in pain I am all over it. I mean, I swing into high gear to take care of her. She is my bride and I love her and cherish her more than anything. This all reminded me of how much God loves and cares for us.

-We need to stop sitting on the fence when it comes to Jesus! You can't have Jesus be Lord or leader of your life and then try to control your life.

-Churches can't embrace the future while haveing a death grip on their own preferences.

The Honeymooners

Christina and I were married two and 1/2 weeks ago. Wow! Time is flying by already! The wedding was wonderful and eventually I'll post some pictures when we get them in. On Sunday, the 12th, we left for our honeymmon trip. We went to Pipestem Resort State Park in southern West Virginia. We really really enjoyed our time. Some gerneral thoughts:

• Shuffle board is fun but difficult in the rain.
• I like the hotel room cold but Christina likes it much warmer.
• I am used to one side of the bed but Christina is more used to the middle of the bed. We need to talk about that more...
• When taking a bubble bath in a jacuzzi tub, you should not use too much bubble bath. I thought I'd do some reading and I realized there was a problem when Christina came in and started to laugh. Bubbbles half way to the ceiling...
• The t.v. in the hotel room are not usable unless the remote works. Christina and I wanted to watch a movie one night but the control stopped working.
• I married the most amazing woman ever, bar none. She is wonderful, beautiful, Godly, and an incredible companion.
• I am looking forward to a long life together with my lovely bride.

I'm Getting Married Tomorrow!!

So I am getting married tomorrow at 2:30... so what? My mind is racing in a million different directions. But since I just woke up (got in from work at around 2) I need some time to think and so therefore I blog.
Some random thoughts going through my head right now...
--Christina is amazing! "He who finds a wife finds a good thing." Solomon was right on!
--I want my marriage to break the mold. Both sets of parents have had rough if not poor marriages that have not been consistantly built on faith in Jesus Christ. I pray Christina and I build our lives on the rock of Jesus Christ. Marriage is too important to fail...
--FOLKS, Elope!
--Marriage is the blending of hearts and the merging of two lives into one (got that one from my minister's manuel).
--I've been reading a lot of books lately dealing with the Christian Theology of Sex. Yep I said it. And I must say that the Church of Jesus has done a terrible job dealing with Sex. In a few months or years I want to do a sermon or series of sermons dealing with the theology of sex within the design of marriage.
--Looking forward to the honeymoon. Enough said!
--It has been difficult for Christina and I to remain pure but I am so thankful that Saturday we become each other's without regret.
--My mother, who is a nurse and the Education Manager & employee health person at St. Joseph's Hospital where I work, gave me my first Hepatitis vacination shot the other day. She then played a cruel joke saying this would prevent me from enjoying married life in a physical sense for a month. I was about to hurt someone.
--I feel so honored to have Bishop Ron Ramsey officate at our wedding. Ron (can I call him that?) has been a huge mentor and help to me for four years now. He has never let me down and has really invested in me. For some country bumpkin from SE Ohio to get that kind of help means a lot. He's like a older father/young grandfather to me... Paul to my Timothy for all you Bible scholars.
--Christina and I are taking communion together as our first act as a married couple. If we are going to last, Christ needs to be at the core of our relationship.

Thats all for now. Some more will surely follow...
What do you think?

Reflections from Sunday (6/14/2009)

Yesterday was a good day. I had a lot to do, and as normal, I stressed myself out (why do I do that when I know Jesus can carry all my burdens?), but overall, it was a great day. I preached for the first time in two weeks since I was away last weekend. The message was called Break The Mold. The text was Romans 12:1,2. Here are some basic thoughts--

• We are all shaped by something-- Some of those things are: culture, race/ethnicity, heritage, family background, traumatic events, deaths, births, natural disaters, financial background, education, geographic location, friends, etc. We are shaped and molded by our environment.
• Do you really want to be like your environment? Nearly 60% of marriages end in divorice. In the Church, 50% of marriages end in divorice. Actually, the Southern Baptists lead in the divorice statistics, so something is terriblely wrong here. Christina and I are getting married in a month. We don't want to fit the pattern of "normal" marriage. She and I both come from families with marriages that either are not godly are all, or need some work. We want to succed and not fail!
  --75% of local churches in the U.S. are either dead or dying. The population of this country is up and growing, but in the last 50 years, church attendance (which is the biggest indicator of spiritual growth) has continued to nose-dive. Who wants to be part of a dead or dying church? JESUS DOESN'T so what should we?
• Our thinking does a lot to determine our actions. Jesus told us that both adultry or sexual sin and murder begin in the heart. Sexual sin begins as lusting and murder begins as hatred. How we percieve things affect our actions. If you think someone flips you off in traffic, you might be tempted to do the same, but maybe all the did was wave and you couldn't see very well. Our attitudes and thinking determine our plan of action.
• Jesus has told us to give up control over our thoughts and actions. We are called to be "living sacrifices." Interesting... In the Old Testament, sacrifices were made and they usually involed something dead (either and animal or picked grain). But Jesus, speaking though Paul, is telling us to give ourselves up to God, but still be living. How? By giving Him total control over evey area in our lives, because only then do we find real freedom. We are no longer ourselves, but a new creation; Christ living in us.
• When we give Jesus control and become Living Sacrifices, we break the mold. We are transformed by the renewing of our mind in Christ Jesus. When we break the mold, we show the world that God's Will is perfect.
• Are you Breaking the Mold or Simply Conforming to the Lost & Boring World Around You?

What Do You Smell Like?

Yesterday, I read a passage of Scripture, Ecclesiastes 10:1, "Dead flied putrefy the perfumer's ointment, and cause it to give off a foul odor; So does a little folly to one respected for wisdom and honor."-- NKJV
The New Living Translation puts it like this, "As dead flies cause even a bottle of perfume to stink,so a little foolishness spoils great wisdom and honor."

Our sense of smell is one of the strongest senses. Think about it... We taste with our nose more than we deo with our toungue (Don't believe me? Pinch your nose during dinner tonight and see if the food tastes as good as usual.). Another example of how strong smell is to us: My great uncle Philip died in 1989. I was four years old and can't remember his voice at all. But I have several precious things that belonged to him and they still have a faint hint of his cologne. My Grandmother Will died in 2000. I also can't remember what her voice sounded like, but when I go to what was her house, I can still smell the perfume she used.

Smell is such an important part of life. But smells can be bad as well.It used to be that whenever I'd drive into Parkersburg, WV, I could smell the city water treatment plant as soon as I crossed the bridge. If I didn't turn the AC on recirculate, the stench would be stuck in my car for several miles. Let me tell you, that smell is AWEFUL! Just one whiff and it ruined my trip.

It's the same with us, you know. We can work really hard and say all the right things and go through all the right motions. But if we mess up one time, our perfect record is broken. All it takes is one screw up, one mishap, to wreck our attempt at perfection. Just one bit of stench stinks up your life.

Part of the problem with this is that we are used to bad smells if we're near them enough. Spend time around a person with bad hygiene. They are going to smell bad. But they have probably gotten used to it. We get used to our sins and our stinky life. To us, it's not a big deal. But to God, it is a big deal.

God sent Jesus to cleanse us, literally. When we accept Jesus and are cleansed by His blood and obeying His Word, we smell different. The Bible talks of us being living sacrifices, a sweet smelling aroma to God.So what about you? Does your life smell like the city dump? Or has Jesus made you to smell like a bed of roses? If you smell bad, call on Jesus and He'll clean you up.