Faith in Real Life – Page 12

In Faith in Real Life

Doors…

March 24, 2009 2 Comments

How do you know what to do? I mean seriously… Life can become overwhelming when you have to make all kinds of decisions. Especially long term decisions. Without getting into the gory details, Tiffany and I are honing in on purchasing a home. God has been so good to us.

It is scary to decide your future. Knowing that one move affects the next, and so on and so on.

I had a professor share with us some very wise thoughts about this exact idea. I’ll share them with you.

When you don’t know what to do, and you are seeking God’s will, start by praying. Pray and ask God to show you what to do. Ask God to lead you in the right direction, to open doors that need to be opened, and close doors that need to be closed.

Then my professor said something very simple. Start walking through the doors. Trust that God will close the doors that are meant to be closed, and that the ones that are meant to be open will be open.

I’m in this particular season of life right now. I’m turning knobs and handles. Some doors are closed and others are opening. It’s hard to walk this way. Honestly! It’s rough, it’s stressful, it’s sleep depriving, and it’s definitely disappointing at times. There are some doors that I would love to hack open at all costs. BUT, it’s rewarding when you know that you are following God’s plan for your life.

a work in progress…

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Crazy Runner

March 5, 2009 1 Comment

“He’s so silly”, as my 2 year old Grace would say. “That guy is so silly.” Yesterday morning I was on my way to guys Bible Study and I decided to stop and pick up some donuts and chocolate milk. Now let me give you a time stamp for when this was all happening at. This was at the early hour of 5:55. IN THE MORNING! Seriously folks… what is wrong with me? Who plans a Bible study that early? Anyway, as I am pulling out of Dunkin Donuts, I see this guy in spandex and a coat tricked out with reflective tape running towards me. Now, at this hour in the morning my mind immediately thought, there must be a fire somewhere and he is running to get help. I mean this guy wouldn’t possibly be running for exercise out in the mind numbing, bone chilling, pet debilitating cold. (Yes, It was that cold!) But sure enough, I realized that an outfit like that could only mean one thing.

HE’S CRAZY.

Sure enough I ended up being right.

Or at least so I thought.

In my mind… “What is wrong with this guy? Why in the world would he be running this early in the morning. There must be something seriously wrong with this guy! He’s crazy.”

But then I noticed something else as I loosened my seat belt… And drove off with a dozen donuts in my car. (Tubby)

He was tall and skinny.

Hmm… His discipline was mildly inspiring. Mostly still crazy in my mind, but inspiring.

It wasn’t long after this that I began to think about how this is representative of my spiritual life. I will so often say I want to be a spiritual giant like my Dad, or I want to know God’s word like the back of my hand. Yet, I am not always willing to go “crazy” in order to attain that goal. Shame on me! “Stay round peter, don’t run… It’s too cold.” That’s what my mind says. My flesh says, “your good enough, don’t read today. You can do it on your own, you don’t need God.”

BOGUS! I am not good enough, I need to read more! I can’t do it on my own. I need God in everything I do. It’s high time I don some spandex, and hit the pavement in the bitter cold at 5:55 AM. Or at least spiritually speaking. And, maybe I’ll trade the spandex for jeans…

Let’s go people. What do you think? Crazy? You, me, that guy? It’s time to become uncomfortable with the way we are, and move towards who God wants us to be! Time to strive. Time to long for more. Time to step up to the plate and man up…

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Psalm 25

March 4, 2009 2 Comments

1 O Lord , I give my life to you.

2 I trust in you, my God!
Do not let me be disgraced, or let my enemies rejoice in my defeat.
3 No one who trusts in you will ever be disgraced, but disgrace comes to those who try to deceive others.

4 Show me the right path, O Lord ; point out the road for me to follow.
5 Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you.
6 Remember, O Lord , your compassion and unfailing love, which you have shown from long ages past.
7 Do not remember the rebellious sins of my youth.
Remember me in the light of your unfailing love, for you are merciful, O Lord .

8 The Lord is good and does what is right; He shows the proper path to those who go astray.

9 He leads the humble in doing right, teaching them his way.
10 The Lord leads with unfailing love and faithfulness
all who keep his covenant and obey his demands.

11 For the honor of your name, O Lord , forgive my many, many sins.

20 Protect me! Rescue my life from them! Do not let me be disgraced, for in you I take refuge.
21 May integrity and honesty protect me, for I put my hope in you.

-I’m Praying this today! So here’s a question, what is one of your favorite Psalms?

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

She’s Two

February 26, 2009 4 Comments

Two years ago today I became a father of two children! This is an exciting moment in our household… No more need for whole milk, no more baby food, potty training begins soon, no more babies in our house… (At least for now…) This is a huge moment in our lives. We have two children over the age of two. It is cause for celebration. We all went into Grace’s room this morning and woke her up… Here’s a little movie I took of that. It is too funny.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekkZe-4DrCk]

It is thrilling to see Grace grow and become a little girl. Soon enough it will be exciting to talk about how she is learning to drive, and engaged, and eventually she will be introducing a new life into the world of her own. I can’t wait to watch and see how she grows.

Imagine with me for a few seconds that if I feel this way about my own son or daughter, how much more excited God gets when we make strides to growing up spiritually! Imagine when we get to the point where we just aren’t praying for a “good day”. Or we are beginning to see the needs of others. I can just see God up in heaven going, “WAHOOOO!!! I THOUGHT THIS DAY WOULD NEVER COME! GOWESKY FINALLY GETS IT! HE IS GROWING!”

What are you doing to intentionally grow closer to God and in your walk with Him?

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Sexy…

February 3, 2009 2 Comments

So, this morning I had the opportunity to sit on a panel here at our MOPS group (Mother’s Of Preschoolers). I can’t even tell you how much fun it was. It was interesting, funny, and insightful. I was looking out at 70 or so moms and hearing their hearts about certain issues. The questions they were asking were honest, insightful, and even dusted with a little bit of painful baggage.

True to his form, my good friend, and elder here at FBC, Bob Miller sparkled like the diamond in JLo’s engagement ring… This guy is a hero amongst men. Seriously, I should have him on here and have a little salt lick blog discussion. That way those faithful saltlick readers can enjoy the wisdom and insight from Bob. Anyhow, I digress… Bob won ever woman’s heart in that room. Men, we need to pay attention to Bob. He’s doing something right.

We covered several topics, but honed in and landed on Sex for about 45 minutes! CRAZY… It was an interesting conversation that ensued afterwards. However, I have a feeling that it could have gone on for a whole lot longer. I was thinking the whole time about what God intended for sex, and what we have managed to make it.

God intended for sex to be for a married man and a woman to enjoy, and savor inside of their married life. It is sad to see the way that our society and culture twists, perverts, distorts and even abuses sex.

Anyhow, It was tons of fun to be able to answer some questions to the best of my ability and just speak honestly from my heart.

So, this made me think, if you were going to sit and listen to a panel, what topic would you want it to be on?

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Soles 4 Souls

January 27, 2009 1 Comment

s4s

That is what I am looking at on my computer right now! Also, in print format we made the front page of the paper! How awesome is that! I believe that God was and will be honored in this shoe drive! I’ve said it publicly and I will say it again, I truly believe that God wants to use these 2700+ shoes (as more have come in even this morning!) I believe that God uses that efforts of His people. GOOD WORK CHURCH! GOOD WORK STUDENTS! I’m proud of both of you!

photo-49

Let’s see what God has in store for us next! Let’s keep being the Church! Here’s the link for the paper.

Beaming…

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Honesty

January 27, 2009 5 Comments

photo-48

Let’s be honest with each other today!

What have you been dealing with?

I read Pete Wilson’s blog, as I usually do, and I was struck by this one post that he wrote about going first. Here it is. You should read it. How many times have you heard someone say, “I have an unspoken prayer request”? I am always a little annoyed by the “unspoken”. It’s kind of like, I want to really do life with you. I want to know what eats you up, and what destroys your heart, and your soul. What squashes the fire? And you respond with Unspoken. Well, let me go first today.

You can pray for me, and believe me, I would be honored if you would pray these things for me!

Pray for a place for my wife, kids, and I to live. We have been living with a family for the last several months. We are craving our own space. The family has been greatly generous and loving towards us. It has nothing to do with them. Just everything to do with the desire to be together again as a family unit.
Pray for me to lead the ministries that I have oversight with, with integrity of heart and skillful hands. But pray in that order. Integrity first. Skill second.
Pray for me as I am taking on leading and teaching “The Five”. This is a new service here at FBC that is seriously trying to make a difference here in this community by unashamedly preaching the Bible in a real life changing culture making way.
Pray that God would give me great creativity as I teach and lead. I don’t want to reinvent the wheel. I want to discover teleportation!
Pray for Godly guys that would surround me and hold me accountable.
Pray for my wife
Pray for my kids
Pray for me as I still deal with the loss of my Dad. It continues to be something that weighs on my heart!
Pray that I would be a great husband to my wife and dad to my kids.
Pray for times of refreshing and encouragement in my life! It seems easy for Satan to find things to discourage me with.
Pray for all the details to work out for my potential enrollment at Biblical Seminary starting this fall! (finances!!!)

Seriously though, if we can’t live life together and be honest…. Come on… Let’s not have the unspoken. If you leave a prayer request in the comments, I will commit to praying for it! Let’s be able to develop a community here!

So grateful!

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Dear Christian

January 20, 2009 4 Comments

Dear Christian,

So, I know… today was a tough day for some of you to swallow. The party voted on by “all good Christians” (emphasis added for sarcasm) didn’t put a president into office. Well… Get over it. Here we stand on the cusp of a new presidency. Unfortunately I hear too many people bantering and bickering over wether President Obama is the anti Christ, rather than how can we best pray for our new president? Too many Christians want to cry over the fact that He isn’t like them, and he smokes!

Well… Seriously, let’s get it together.

I mean honestly, it is time for us who call ourselves; followers of the way, Jesus Freaks, deacons, elders, disciples, pastors, sunday school teachers, young life leaders, FCA Huddle leaders, and most commonly- christians, to begin to be known for the things that we do than the things that we don’t do. It is time that we are known for loving those that differ from us, than pointing out all of the differences that make us so disgusted by them. In fact, it’s time for us to quit being disgusted by people who are different than us, and grow to love that difference. See, it’s my prayer that one day that pot smoking hippy type will be standing next to me in heaven praising God.

It’s my prayer that the person who I judged most will one day come to know the saving grace and the love of Jesus Christ! Unfortunately when “we” christians make bone headed statements like, “President Obama is going to lead this nation to hell”, I have a feeling that we may be putting a roadblock in the way of that gossip girl, or that man interested only in greys anatomy. Come on…

People don’t care what you know, until they know that you care.

Come on Christian… Step up your game. Get out there and love people…

John 13:34-35 “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

I need to step it up! Want to join me? I hope so…

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Introducing the New Intern

January 16, 2009 2 Comments

Here’s the good news! I am so excited to introduce to you our new intern! His name is Josh Adams! I love this guy. He is an incredible young man who loves the Lord and loves students. He is tons of fun. I am pumped to see what God chooses to do through him!

Today here at FBC we had the red cross in for a blood drive. Now, it’s been a while since I’ve given blood. So, I figured today would be the day to give again. I checked over the whole list of things, and guess what… I qualify! I can give blood. So, I did. I filled the bag in 5 minutes flat. Just so you know, it took our intern 10 minutes. I guess he has a few things to learn huh?

Well, we were making it quite the competition… The nurses were coaching us and laughing at us, and just having a good time. All was well, until… UNTIL… all was well until this happened…

I’m not feeling so well…

I think I’m gonna pass out… (commotion, all around…)

Amazing! It was too good not to get this story on tape… ENJOY!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG1BVaX8iwE]

AMAZING

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Reflect Christ

January 10, 2009 1 Comment

Have you realized yet that you interact with hundreds and thousands of people a year? Dependent upon your job, you may meet and greet several thousand people a year. If you live in a neighborhood, or development. If you live in what we have commonly called a town, city, or village… likely you will run into people. And here’s the deal. People are messy. People are really dirty. They have problems. They have issues! BOY DO THEY HAVE ISSUES! Everyone has issues but me. (Ever find yourself saying that?) What do we do with all of these dirty, messy, smelly, people filled with issues when we run into them. You know, the kind that barge into your life with all kinds of problems. How do you and I handle these moments? What is it that we will do?

We have started a new teaching series here with both of our groups, Junior High & Senior High. We’re calling it “Reflect Christ”. We are looking at how Christ showed compassion on the people He found surrounding Him. There were thousands of people and hundreds of thousands of interactions that Jesus had with people. The question of a good disciple should be, when I run into people how should I interact with them? Better yet, how would my Rabbi, my discipler, my Lord, my teacher interact with this person? How can I reflect the teacher? How can I reflect Christ? We are looking at three different examples of how Christ dealt with three different groups of people. They are:

The Person I don’t know
The Person I know
The Person I know the best

What do you think compassion really is? How can we show compassion to those around us? Whoever they may be… No matter what category they fit into.

I just can’t stop thinking about this question: “How are we going to deal with those we find ourselves surrounded with?”

Thoughts?

~Peter