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Faith in Real Life

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In Faith in Real Life

2008

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What has God done in 2008?  (in no particular order)

God Has…

  1. settled Tiffany and I here in Doylestown.
  2. broken my heart for the need’s of people.
  3. poured out blessing after blessing during times of serious financial need
  4. kept each one of us safe and healthy
  5. seen us through the creation of a Junior High and Senior High Youth Group.
  6. grew those groups spiritually
  7. grew those groups numerically
  8. worked in the lives of over a hundred teenagers here at FBC
  9. placed a burden on the hearts of people to give over $20,000 to the youth ministry
  10. cultivated rich friendships in my life
  11. grown my relationship with my wife to the degree that I didn’t know was possible
  12. stretched Tiffany and I in ways we couldn’t have imagined
  13. freed my dad from the limitations of sickness, disease, & brought him to the place of wholeness, and perfection
  14. allowed me some very special and intimate moments with my dad in the last few days
  15. gave me the strength to give testimony at my Dad’s funeral of not only who Dad was but who the very God that Dad served is
  16. given our youth ministry 21 solid youth leaders who not only love God with all their hearts, but also have a passion for students
  17. given me an anxious anticipation for the ministry that is to come in 2009!

What has God done in your life in 2008?  It has been pretty quiet around here lately, through the holiday’s I have been spending extra time with my family and loving it!  Let’s keep up the conversation in 2009!  Thanks to each one of you who come back and read everyday!  HAPPY NEW YEAR…

~Peter

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Looking Back

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Well today is December 29th.  Can you believe that?  Today I spent the morning with my wife and kids on the beaches of LBI and driving around looking at all the old familiar spots.  We went to our second apartment, we went to the different places we loved.  Then we met a friend for lunch.  It was great.  It felt like old times.  

After all this nostalgic reminiscing, it made me think…  “what has God done in the last year?”  So, I’m challenging myself to take a look at the last year, and analyize it.  I want to look back and see what God has done in my life over the last year.  I want to take some time to think about it, but then I will share some of it with you.  

So I challenge you with this question…  “What has God done in your life this last year?”  

Share with us!  Let’s give God some praise…

~Peter

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Christmas Eve…

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Here’s a quick rant of thoughts running through my head…

  1. Did I pack everything?
  2. Glad to not be getting in trouble today… (at least not with my mom…)
  3. Wondering why it has to be raining today… UGH!  WHY CAN’T THIS BE SNOW!
  4. Looking forward to announcing our Soles4Souls shoe drive this sunday in church!  
  5. Wondering if we will meet our goal of 2000 shoes, or if we will far exceed it!  Either way, I am pumped about it.  
  6. Saw a really funny video of my friend Rob and his family… Check it out here…
  7. Decided that candlelight services definitely make it a special time…  Better than us all holding up our Iphones…  
  8. This guy has some really funny stuff to say about candlelight services… Read it here…
  9. Looking forward to getting in my car and heading over to Jersey to see the family there, and be with my wife and kids for a while… It’s gonna be great.
  10. Looking forward to the Wii Golf tournaments that are about to take place…
  11. Looking forward to playing some guitar, doing some writing, thinking, and praying…
  12. Missing my dad.  
  13. Thankful that Jesus came to earth to save someone like me… 
  14. Thankful that He came to save you too!
  15. Merry Christmas!!!

~Peter

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God only works in the USA

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Amazing isn’t it?  Sometimes I think that God only chooses to work in the USA.  The great United States of America.  Believe me, I am as proud to be an American as you are. (as long as you are reading this here in the US.)  So don’t try and hang me as someone who doesn’t love this country, or is thinking of moving to Costa Rica simply because Obama has been elected for office, or because Palin is banished back to Alaska.  Ah well… But seriously, I was reading through several blogs this morning, and came across Craig Groeschel’s blog where he was writing about his recent trip to Ecuador.  He posted a few pictures in order to recap the trip.  I was mostly interested in the picture of Craig with the local pastor.  Go here and check it out.  

Here’s what I want to get at.  Why is it that I was surprised to learn that 85% of this pastors village has a relationship with Christ?  Why is it that I was surprised to learn that this man ministers to somewhere in the vicinity of 1200 people a week!  That is absolutely incredible.  In Ecuador none the less!!!  The stats- incredible; my surprise- disgusting.  

Why am I surprised that there can be a mega church in a poorer country?  Do I think that Jesus came to seek and save the rich?

Why am I surprised that a pastor can be incredibly successful yet wildly under resourced?  Do I think that Jesus was born in a premier neonatal unit?  Do I think that Jesus had powerpoint, motion backgrounds, and clever video illustrations to help present his message?

Why am I surprised that God chooses to do huge things else where?  Did I misunderstand the whole bit about being for all people?  

No.  Clearly No.  NO!  Without a doubt NO.  Then why does it surprise me…    

It is so easy to become so disillusioned to think that Jesus can and will only work through your own church.  Do you ever find yourself praying for a nearby church?  Not that often I imagine.  What about the church down the street, or the youth group just around the corner?  Do we have such ministry lust that we can’t see past our own actions and efforts to really see what God is doing?Are we so blind that we don’t/can’t see what God is doing globally?  

My desire is to be pleasing to God.  I want to be used by Him.  I want our youth group to be used by God to make a difference in this world.  I want our church to be so with it that it draws those outside of a relationship with Christ to it.  Yet I know that it is up to God wether our church and youth ministry stay the size it is, or if it is to grow exponentially.  It all rests on His sovereignty.  

So, here is today’s question.  Do you fall into the trap of thinking that God wants to only work in your church?  What do you think about all this?  Am I all alone on this one?

~Peter

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Old and Tired… ???

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It strikes me as interesting that every year Christmas rolls around and here we are doing the same things, over and over again.  You know… like traditions?  I just wrote a post about christmas traditions that I have/had.  But anyhow, traditions, they can become old, tired, boring, and even empty and lifeless.  

I’ve had the opportunity to  read through the story of Jesus’ birth several times this year already.  Thinking back on bible college, high school, church, sunday school, youth group, boys brigade, home, and all the other places that I have heard/read this story, it is amazing to think of the amount of times that I have read it and been exposed to it.  

One would think that it could get old or routine by now.  Yet it doesn’t.  It still proves to be an incredible story that honestly I can’t wrap my mind around.  God becoming like me, only so that He could die for me.  Weird!  I’ve been loving John 1 this year.  I know it isn’t our traditional donkey, inn keeper, wisemen, manger scene depiction of the Christmas story.  Yet at the same time, it is unbelievably amazing to think that Jesus is God, was God, never has not been with God, and all of a sudden He becomes the very expression of God to each one of us.  Unbelievable.  Check it out.  John 1.  

What do you think?  Do you find yourself tired of the story, or continually amazed?  What new insight have you picked up on?

Let’s hear your thoughts…  Continue the conversation…

~Peter

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Traditions

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Growing up, I will never forget some of our family’s Christmas traditions.  Every year we would do certain things the same as the year before that.  For instance without fail I would get in trouble every christmas eve day.  I would be so wired up and ready for the big day that I would do something stupid and find myself causing stress in someone else’s life.  That was one of the unspoken Christmas traditions.  There were tons of other ones which we practiced every year faithfully.  One of them was setting up our families manger scene.  This is something that has become close to my heart.  I look back on those times with great memories.  As a family we would “open” up the manger scene and set each piece in it’s place.  I say open it up because each piece was carefully wrapped in tissue paper.  It was a grab bag of sorts.  You never knew which piece you were going to get.  However secretly inside, I always wanted to be the guy who unraveled the tissue and found a sweet little baby Jesus.  Anyway, once you unraveled your piece we would describe what part in the story the piece played.  This whole process got more and more theological as three of the four siblings went off to Bible College.  While I was in high school I can remembering coming up with different analogies and stories describing why the “ten thousand lambs” (It seemed like there were that many anyhow…) were at the manger scene, “The Lion and the Lamb”, “The sacrificial Lamb”, “Jesus was the good shepherd”, “All we like sheep have gone astray”, as I write this now, I am chuckling thinking about my sister Heather coming up with new and Biblical explanations of those little lambs.  Good times…  After the manger was all set up, my dad would open up his Bible, and the little ribbon would lay neatly open to Luke, and we would reread the gospel story once again.  What a genius’ my mom and dad were…  What a tradition.  

The other day I realized that without even thinking we began doing something very similar with our kids.  The manger scene is quite different, and the way it was done was also different, but the idea remains the same.  I suppose you can say that the tradition will be carried on in my house.  Here are some pictures of the “Opening of the manger scene” 2008.  

Here we are with my kids being 3 and almost 2 and I’m so excited to see what explanations they come up with when the donkey pops up, what do they do with that donkey.  I can’t wait to see where they theologically place the wisemen, or magi… or hmm… what were they?  I am looking forward to hearing if the angels sang or said, “Glory to God in the Highest”…  AH!  It’s going to be great… Did the magi/kings ride camels or horses…  (Thank you hallmark for all of your inaccurate images… but that’s another post…) We had a great time explaining the story of God, Jesus, coming to earth.  

What traditions do you have?

Merry Christmas!!!

~Peter

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High Aspirations

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So, I guess you can’t blame them for having high aspirations.  The other day we were walking through Toy’s R’ Us to get a couple christmas gifts for our Christmas Gala Project.  Noah and Grace meandered around and found their way to the mother of all big wheels.  To the great kahuna of tricycles.  They found the power wheels.  Noah made sure that he sat in every single one, and that he checked out the interior, the radio’s, the door locks, the trunks, everything… He made sure that they were going to be as tricked out as possible, and then he settled on this one here below.  UNBELIEVABLE!  Grace saw pink and she was googly eyed!  She is such a girl…  Come on… no taste in Power Wheels.  AH WELL, there’s time to teach her.  

img_0774img_0771

What crazy thing are you asking Santa for this year?

~Peter

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Dream Job

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Okay, so go here… and watch the video called “dream job week 4”.  Then click back over here…  Go ahead, do it now…  I’ll be waiting here for your return.  

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I was with a good buddy this morning, and we were talking about God’s will and God’s direction for his life.  Immediately I thought of this video.  This is such a cool story.  Isn’t it?  It made me think.  What do you think?

~Peter

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Lets do this together

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This morning I was driving in my car with Noah and Grace in tow behind me.   We were driving from the house to the church.  Today was going to be a special day!  We were going to play at the church for the morning.  We brought their bikes and we were going to play!  It was going to be fun.  We all willingly put our coats and shoes on, and we headed to the car with excitement on our faces.  ALL OF US!  So, we get in the car and something magical happened.  We were descending the hill on West Street passing by Doyle Elementary school and I noticed what was happening in the back seat behind me.  We were having a little school lesson.  

This is the conversation I heard.

Noah- “Grace.  Say tree.”

Grace- “Twee”

Noah- “Good job Grace.  Say car.”

Grace- “Kar”

Noah- “Good job Grace.  Say Baby Doughnut.”  {In our family munchkins are known lovingly as Baby doughnuts…}

Grace- “Bebe Dowgnuts”

All of a sudden it hit me…  Shouldn’t this be what the Christian life is all about?  Shouldn’t we be helping each other grow in our faith?  Shouldn’t we be there living life along side of each other helping our peers out when they are struggling? In this situation, there was no paid teacher, there was no professional.  Believe me, Noah has lightyears to go in his sentence structure and word pronunciation. However, for whatever reason, he saw a need in his sisters life.  He stepped up to the plate and was there to help Grace develop in her speech, and her abilities to communicate.  I was one proud dad.  

This is what we are trying to do at Youth Group.  We are purposefully leaving 10 minutes at the end of every evening for students to spend that time with each other, praying, talking, counseling, laughing, and crying.  This has everything to do with helping each other.  

I’m a pastor.  True statement.  However, I don’t want to be the only one leading students.  I want to see youth leaders leading students.  I want to see students leading students.  There will be much greater growth in church’s, youth groups, small groups, and sunday schools if we would work together and follow the example of a 3 year old.    What if… What if we practiced this?  

What do you think?  Can you be apart of this type of a movement?  Who do you think that you can be reaching out to?  Or, have you had anyone do this in your life?

What do you think?

~Peter

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