Sunday Sunday

Sunday Sunday Sunday

Well it is still Sunday for another hour or so. Went to church alone this morning. I had my Sunday school material all filled out and ready. Tammy and Sam brought bagels and sticky bun cake. They were both really good. Most of our class went to the Franklin Graham Festival Saturday night when Toby Mac and Group 1 Crew played. It was funny to hear how the their kids (teenagers) were not singing or dancing or doing anything crazy but sitting there listening. The parents were surprised to see their kids not get excited as they thought they would. They also said that had the parents not been there they are sure they would have been more loose and excited. Anyways…. The lesson started and Sam wanted me to read at the same time he was reading. I got shy and didn’t read with him. He called me out in the middle of it. LOL Anyways it was supposed to make a point of being disorderly. God is a God of order and peace. The lesson went on and we talked about how the Corinthians (Corinth Church) was being disorderly and that Worship would last all day. Paul was making a point to let only a couple speak and for the Worship to be to the point and not let drag on all day with chaos. Paul also mentioned that singing, preaching, and interpretation done for God will strengthen the church. Paul wanted the church to be strengthened by order during Worship.

Sunday morning service with Todd. Todd has been talking about being a "Breakout Church", not a mega church or a big church but a Church that follows God according to His Word and Will. During the sermon I realized that some of the things I have been struggling with have really been because of a mindset. I realized that the reason I am not moving forward is because of a mindset. I want to do things to be recognized by other members, to feel encouraged and to have them notice I am walking closer with God. Well, it is not for them to recognize that. It is for God to recognize it. Everything should be done because God inspires us with a passion to serve. Serving out of obligation doesn’t make God happy. God wants us to serve with a joyful heart. He wants us to serve because it pleases God not man.

Hearing Todd speak this morning was humbling. I pray that God will change my heart and mind. I know it will be a struggle, but as long as I continue to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to guide me each day He will. I believe God is still working on me and changing me just a little everyday. I can see that God has a purpose for my life. I can see that God is leading me in a direction, destination unknown. I don’t care where he takes me, because once I get there, I know God will say, "This is only the beginning". I will continue to learn but actually doing what God has put me here for. Sometimes I wish I could attend church everyday and just drown myself in God without distractions. I wish there was a God camp, so to speak. You know, like "The Biggest Loser" type of thing. I know the more I pray and listen the faster I change. God has revealed himself to me in so many ways this week. He continues to just show me where I need to change and where I need to refocus.

The biggest thing I struggle with the most is the commandment "Thou shall have no other Gods Before me". I think I will save this one also for another day. I would say I break this commandment more than any other everyday.

God Bless you all for reading. I pray that God uses me with this blog to touch other peoples lives and continue to show my struggles and God moments. Being a Christian was never promised to be easy, but to be continuous choices to follow our Father.

Good Nite,

WLBC-Webmaster

Learning Everyday!

Sat. 4-26-08

What a day!

I missed writing 2 days now. So let’s catch up…

Thursday… Went to work for a half a day. I was supposed to go and practice singing in the Choir for The Franklin Graham Festival. However, My wife’s health took front seat that evening. She had some blood work at the doctor’s office on Wednesday and the results did not come back as good as hoped. They suggested we go the ER to get everything checked out. She was having some swelling in the legs, possible blood clot, and her blood test showed her kidneys were functioning slowly, possible kidney failure. So we spent several hour at the ER getting everything checked out. She had an ultra sound on her legs, and they did NOT find any blood clots. Her blood tests all came back negative in regards to the kidney thing. She was so worried, but at the same time did not want to be burden on me. She was so sweet. She wanted to make sure I got to my Choir practice. However with everything her and I have been through the last several months, I did not want to take any chances. Thank God that everything came back OK. Now she is still having some pain and swelling the legs. The doc told her to prop up her foot while sitting and not to sit with her right leg on top of her left leg (half indian style). That’s what was causing some blockage and not allowing the blood to flow back up like normal. She is still in pain, but the swelling has started to go down and she is doing much better.

Friday… Yesterday…. Well I also had this day off. I was supposed to sing at the Festival last night. I never made it there. Why? Well, several reasons why. First, I was scared and having some anxiety about being with all those people in a huge arena. I also am a Big Guy and my health could stand some major improvements. In retrospect, I could not fit in the stadium seating. I am either too wide or too tall. Very embarrassing on my part, that because of my size, I couldn’t sit with a choir. Yeah it’s been a long time dream of mine to be part of something of this magnitude. But dealing with the anxiety and not having a place to sit was like a double blow to my emotions. If it were one or the other, I am sure I would have been there. My wife, the sweet thing she is, thought it was her fault because I did not get to practice on Thursday night. Of course it wasn’t her fault, it was mine. I made a decision and I have to live with that decision. I am disappointed in myself that I just couldn’t do what I really wanted to do. It really broke my heart. Right then I learned that I have to do something with my health. I figured if I start taking care of my physical well being, my mental status will improve. It will be a long journey to say the least. Besides my size, I also smoke. Another double threat. One might think that because my father has heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes, that one would take better care of themselves. No, that is not the case for me, I am completely doing all the things that I shouldn’t to prevent those things from happening to me. OK so enough of the negative things. God has always blessed me with over all good health. Despite my shortcomings.

OK so now on to TODAY, Saturday…. My child had a couple of friends spend the night last night. Needless to say we all had a long night but very little sleep. We all got up this morning to head out to the Xtreme Kids Live at the Franklin Graham Festival.
It was an awesome show for the kids. They had extreme sports bicycling, Little Tommy Toons, and "God Rocks" performing. If I was a kid this would have been the show to go to. My son and his friend enjoyed it very much. I on the other hand enjoyed the show, but not the seating arrangements. Again because of my size I had to sit in a folding chair so the experience was not the same. We all met at WLBC this morning and 3 vehicles took all of us over there. Our pastor and his family went, a couple other leaders and their kids went, and then my son and his friends (13 of us in all). Not a bad turn out. The stadium was about a third full. They had some seating blocked off. There was a kids choir that also performed.

After we got home, I took a 4 hour nap. I was exhausted from walking all over the stadium and it was getting hot outside when we were leaving. I don’t do well in hot weather and walking that much. Again there is that health thing. OK so anyways… After getting up, I helped fix supper. We had bar-b-que chicken with BBQ chips for the coating and then roasted red potatoes. YUM YUM!!!!

After getting refreshed and refilled, I sat down at the computer and did some homework to get ready for Sunday School. This week I was asked to put up our Sunday School handouts and discussion guides. So I went to the forum site and printed out the handouts and filled them all out. I took the time to read a couple versions of the same Scripture to better understand what Paul was talking about in 1 Corinthians. This week’s lesson is focusing on how we should be orderly while worshiping in church. That we should take turns Speaking and Singing ect…. It also brings up that scripture that women are not to speak in church. Now the church Paul was speaking of was not Today’s churches at all. He was talking about the Church of Saints and Prophets. It was disorderly for a woman to speak up, God had commanded that women should discuss with their husbands at home so the husband could speak at the next gathering. In this lesson they do refer to another part of the Bible where Paul discusses the place women have in the church and that they do have vital roles and positions of leadership. Paul was saying women NEVER could speak, just in this type of setting, the Church of Saints. So beyond all of this, I still don’t know all the passages, but there are several places in the Bible talking about women and their roles in the church. Jesus had even mentioned it at least once during his teachings.

Another section related to our lesson, talked about false prophets in 2 Peter 2 and 1 John 4, warning believer of false Prophets and the anti-christ. These passages tell us how to distinguish the true Prophets and teachers from the fake ones. Basically what I have learned in this topic, is that God tells us to read His Word and not to depend on what others teach us. If they are teaching from the Word, then we should study the Word ourselves to ensure accuracy. It is our responsibility to read God’s word and not to believe everything that others tell us about the Bible. It’s like having a driver’s license. You may not know all the rules and laws, but that still doesn’t mean you won’t get a ticket for breaking one of those laws. It’s the same with the Bible. We have to read it and ask God to speak to us, to help us understand it. Ask God what he is teaching US not others about what He has to say. It is our responsibility read, learn and to know God’s word and plan for US. We cannot depend on others to translate the Word to us. Now why then do we have preachers, priests and others in leadership. These men are chosen by God to lead us. Some start out with the best intentions and truly preach what is written in the Bible and then later Falter. They are human like you and me and make mistakes the same way we do. Being in a leadership, they have even a bigger responsibility. They are dealt with by God in another manner. (for another day) If what they teach is wrong, they are Judged by God differently than us. We all have a responsibility to read and learn God’s Word on our own and also learn from each other. When learning from each other, it’s a time when God shows some of us a little something different in the same passage depending on what is going on in our lives that time.

I know some of this sounds confusing, but in the end, if we have a Bible, then WE are responsible to learn God’s Word, not a preacher’s or minister’s. God will judge us on what we have read and not read, done and not done, and obeyed and disobeyed. Not that it will matter to us when we make it to Heaven, but each of us will have different rewards in Heaven. Our lives here on earth are a test of our Love of God and willingness to Obey Him. When we leave this Earth, we have to face Him and that is all that matters.

I pray that what I wrote made some sense and that if you are struggling with the whole "GOD" thing, that you find something to inspire you to seek God more and not listen to the ways of our world. If this blog reaches only one person’s life then God has accomplished what He wanted me to do.

God Bless you all

WLBC-Webmaster

Learning Everyday!

Busy Day

Hey everyone,

Today was sorta busy. It was my day off and just relaxed this morning. Now this evening, went to church for supper. Had a meeting to see a house across the street from the church. It was a nice looking house over all. It needs some work before we would think about trying to purchase it. God will lead us in the direction we need to go with this. Then choir practice. Then on the way home went to the store for groceries. That was an adventure.

Tomorrow I will be going to practice at the Thompson Bowling arena for the Franklin Graham Festival Choir. I am excited to be part of this huge event.

Oh if you missed the Dove awards, you missed an awesome God show. It was really cool to see Amy Grant and Michael W Smith singing together.

Yeah I am exhausted again today. Keeping it short and sweet tonight but wanted to write a little. Thank God for an amazing day! Thank God for the amazing weekend coming up.

Here’s a Pic that is so awesome. God really is the true Painter and Creator of our Universe and world.

Tuesday Night

Ok so its not Tuesday Night anymore but Wednesday Morning. Anyways this one will be short. Its very late I have been working on our Forum for the website for the last 3 1/2 hours.

What did I learn today?

I learned today that as I write these Blogs, God is speaking to me. He is giving me insights about Him and what he as done in my life. When I discovered this today, I was in total AWE! I was overjoyed to know without a doubt that God is speaking to me. He is helping learn more about Him as I write. Or maybe it’s things I already knew but reaffirming them while writing. I knew that I had a deep Love for God, Jesus and The Holy Spirit, but God is reaffirming and reassuring me while writing. How AWESOME is HE, that he can remind us of how much HE really loves us. It is really hard to put into words, but I think you get the idea.

I also learned that if I post my goals publicly, I am more likely to stick to my goals and accomplish them each day with God’s help. I am not quite sure if I want to post my goals just yet other than writing daily here. I think I will work on this goal first until it becomes a habit. I am loving this, writing and listening to Him while writing.

Anyways, like I said this one would be short. I am squinting at the computer screen because I am so exhausted right now. Tomorrow is new day and a new start.

Praise Him for each NEW day. What an awesome God is He, who can keep our world from spinning out into the universe and giving us Sunlight each day to live and enjoy life and for giving us night to rest and be refreshed for the next day. Who else do you know can do all this? I don’t know of anyone else but Him. I told you He was awesome.

Come back tomorrow for more insights. Maybe I will actually get some reading done tomorrow to write about. I can’t wait to see what God does with that.

Good Night All and God Bless!

WLBC-Webmaster

Learning Everyday!

Learning Again

Ok so day 2 of Learning Everyday

Ok so a few minutes a go I had this all done and I hit the "back" button on my web browser on accident and lost the whole thing. Lets see if I can remember what I wrote…..

What I learned today….
I learned that God allows us to go through difficult times to draw closer to Him. He prepares us for His plan! The only way we can share what we have been through and how God helped us through it, is to Live It!

Now you might be thinking… Why would God who is supposed to be protecting us from bad things, keeping us from danger, loving us no matter what, and show Mercy all the time, would allow us to go through those difficult times? How else are we to learn? Yeah you could read books, search the internet, and talk to others who have experienced tragedy in their lives, but HOW would you be able to share and testify to others your experience of tragedy and overcoming it? HOW? Real life experience is the true training of our lives! Learning how to trust God through these times. Learning how to live day to day. Learning how to overcome and become victorious on the other side. Sure going through these times sure does stink at times and some days are harder than others. But how else do you expect to learn it? You can only truly share the hard times and the triumph over them if you only live it.

Take my wife for example. Her childhood was extremely horrible to say the least. I wont go into details but for over 7 years of her teenage years, she lived through some pretty horrific things. I see her now still working with God. She has learned so much recently. God has really blessed her. She probably doesn’t feel that way sometimes, but when it comes time, she will look back and say, WOW, Thank you God for allowing me to live and to be able to share how God has changed her life over the years. Of course it didn’t happen overnight or in a few years. God has been working on her for many years now. She is at the edge looking over and is so close to spreading her wings to fly again. During her recent training sessions at a local facility, she was able to share insights to some of the other participants and was able to impact their lives. She was only able to do this because she had been there and has learned how to overcome so many obstacles. God put a lot of people in her life to get her where she is today!

So the next time you are having a rough day, ask God what he is trying to teach you. And when you ask don’t forget to listen. Now God doesn’t always answer in the way you and I would communicate, but if you look for it, pray for it, listen and wait for it, God will show you what it is he is teaching you. For me, most days, is patience and tolerance! I will get into that more later someday.

I pray that as I share my thoughts and things that I learn, that God uses me and this to His Plan for me and anyone who reads it.

Thanks for reading. God Bless!!!

In Christ’s Love
WLBC-Webmaster

Learning Everyday

With all the blogging out there, I figured as much to blog also.

My mind works a little differently than a lot of others I know. HOW? you may ask? Well, that’s hard to explain but I will try. Maybe after reading this, you will say, hey… you think just like me.

With everything going on in my life, some days it’s easier to make right choices than others. The days with more wrong choices seems to lead to dissapointment in myself and mild depression. Now usually, I can work myself out of it by the next day, sometimes it doesn’t happen though. I like to put my self in a vicious cycle that continues to allow myself to spiral downward. Upon realization I can pull my self back up with God’s help. I often question why I do the things I do that does not please God. I also wander how God percieves me. Along with this, I usually try to analyze what some people, that I look up to, would say if they only knew.

I know I have to remember that everyone makes mistakes, but its so easy to look at others and just say, “They have it all together”, or “I really admire how they trust/worship God.”

Knowing this, I just ask God to tell me what I need to do. Whenever I look at others who “have it together”, I wander if what I am doing for God, is enough. I often wander if those that I look upto recognize the work I do. I also wander if they ever think I am good enough to take on more responsibilities. I also wander, what must I do to get to do certain things? Why am I not asked to be someone who can lead? God can only answer that for me. I know God uses me everyday in ways I never see or imagine. Am I truly doing everything I can for God? Probably not. What else do I need to do to feel more worthy of God? Sometimes its overwhelming to be everything to God and give Him everything in my Life, including all of ME. The expectations are so high that they almost seem out of reach. I do believe one day I will get there. I have to be patient, ask, read, and most of all just LISTEN. I remember a little poem or story where a guy who was fed up with life quit everything. Before committing suicide, he asked God one more time what he was missing. God replied that the man was like a Bamboo seedling, it remains a seedling for years before bursting up out of the ground and being comparable in size to the other Big Trees in the forest. God had to remind him that he loves us all the same but some people will stay a small seedling for years and then one day, burst at the seems and become complete in God’s glory. When the man realized he needed to be patient, he returned home and continued to grow with God and wait for God to show him when he was ready to burst forth.

It is intereseting, I can’t remember this all the time. It is all beyond me. Maybe its just God’s adversary, the devil, sneaking in and putting doubt in my mind. Yeah, I am sure it’s the devil’s fault.

I also keep waitng for the day when I think God has given me all I could ask for. Then I stop and think, maybe this is what God has planned for me. I also have to remember that this life is only temporary and NOT permanent. All I know is that I keep asking Him to show me. I know that God is working on me everyday and somedays, I wish it were more. I know God is working with me a little bit each time I stop to listen. Maybe I should stop and listen more often. With everything going on in the World, it is so easy to get wrapped up in worldly things. I know that God is working on me to recognize the worldly things and He is showing me what He does not approve of.

I know everything above might sound kinda depressing, but really its a lot of realization on my part of what God is taking me from and bringing me to. God has shown his mercy so many times, but when life has you down, it is so hard to remember those blessings. I am thankful for my friends at WLBC that they continue to show Love and remind me of my blessings.

I remember the time I asked Christ in my heart, repented of my sins, believed He was the only one who could bring me to God and the only way I would see him face to face in Heaven one day. I remember it like it was yesterday, the feeling of all the burdens had be released and taken from me. I remember how it felt to be God’s child for the first time. I remember that God started working with me on that first day. I remember the excitement of confessing that I believed in God and how awesome it was to be part of God’s family now. I also remember as a young child, my attention span did not last long. It really wasn’t til about 2 1/2 years ago that I began my walk with Christ again. For a long time, I said I belived but never trully lived it. In that couple of years, I have learned so much at WLBC. I have been watching God’s people work the way God and Jesus worked. They continue to love me despite the stupid things I do from time to time. They continue to show me the what God’s word says how to live. They continue to be a very important role in my life as I continue my journey with Christ. What probably makes me the most angry, is that I allow the devil to tarnish those blessings and puts doubt and hate in my heart. I am so thankful that I have learned how not to let that affect me for a very long time. Forgiving becomes easier with God’s love and guidence. Forgetting comes easier with God also. I am where I am today because I have not let God work completely in my life and also I am where I am today because I have let God work in my life. With God showing me where I have come from and where I am now, He reminds me that His hand is on my heart, mind and soul everyday.

The other day we (Sunday School Class) were discussing how 80%+ of Americans believe in God but how so many of those are not going to make it to Heaven. Getting to Heaven is not a one time prayer. It is a life of prayers and building the relationship with Christ and God. It is walking in His ways and moving away from sin. It is a continuous journey that never ends. Jesus points out in the New Testament (sorry cant remember the exact passage) that it is easy to travel the broad road that leads to darkness and there is One narrow path that leads to a narrow gate where Jesus will welcome us Home.

It is frightening to say that on the day of judgement, we all will see God’s Wrath and Glory! Personally I am shooting for Glory and Mercy. What path are you walking? What will be God’s judgement on you? Through all of this I have learned that Fearing God and trusting Him is the only way to get to Heaven. Step by Step God will lead us to his side. And yes God is still working on me. He’s got His work cut out for Him, but I trust Him and Believe He will guide me into His arms of Love and Forgiveness.

With all of that said….I keep learing how to focus on Him more and more each day.

In Christ’s Love

WLBC Webmaster

Learning Everyday!