Faith in Real Life – Page 24

In Faith in Real Life

Morning by morning… … …

May 14, 2008 No Comments

What do you think about when life is difficult? What is the first thing that your mind does when crisis decides to pay you a visit? Do you jump into a panic? Do you loose sleep? Or maybe you are the complete opposite, maybe you hibernate to get away from it all. Endless tears? Continual anger? What is your response to crisis?

I’ve been reading a book called “The Man God Uses” by Henry and Tom Blackaby. It has been a great book so far. I am not all that far into the book. But I had to stop and think about this line of thought that they’ve got going on here. Check this.

“Character is not shaped by crisis; it is revealed in crisis. When crises occur, you can discover more about yourself as you listen to the words that come out of your mouth, as you see what actions you take, and as you monitor your attitude and evaluate how Christlike it is.”

WHEW. Better tighten your belt a few notches.

How does that resonate with you? How have you dealt with crisis lately? Have the words that come from your mouth and the actions that you take, and the attitude that you display all been more like Christ, or more like man?

Please don’t make me answer. I’m sure we won’t be happy with the answer! At least, I’m not.

But here’s the great news. You and I are just works in progress. Romans 5:20 reminds us that “where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.” Right now you have the opportunity to turn this crisis that you are experiencing right now into a tool that molds you and makes you more like Christ.

So, maybe crisis or difficult times will never be fun. That’s probably true. However, on the flip side, every crisis I have gone through, God has been there with me the whole time. Faithful as the day is long. So, I guess we need to think a little before we throw our hands up in anger, or go hibernate till the storm is over. I guess there is a lot to be learned.

What do you think?

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

fit or unfit?

May 13, 2008 No Comments

So, recently my family and I were blessed with an incredible gift. Someone came to us and said, “my husband and I would like to get you a membership to the YMCA for the year. Is that something you think you would like?”

Well, Tiffany and I were blown away. Totally pumped. Well last night was the first opportunity that we’ve had to go to the gym. Interesting to say the least. We both got kicked off of our particular torture mechanisms, known by most as elliptical machines… No, we weren’t doing anything crazy on them… apparently you need to sign up to beat your body up here at our Y. Anyhow, this morning at 8 in the morning I had a fitness evaluation. Lets just put it this way, some sections I was an A, and the rest were about C’s or maybe even D’s.

This woke me up.

How about you, if you had to think about it, how is your physical fitness?

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

So, in my mind it isn’t that I am torturing my body on the elliptical anymore, I am glorifying God in my body. I am beautifying the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives inside of me by taking care of my body better.

Plus, I’m sure that Tiffany won’t mind either…

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

How does this speak to you?

May 11, 2008 5 Comments

Here’s what we are going to do. I found this video that is pretty neat. It is about a minute or so. Watch it then comment on how it speaks to you? What emotions does it leave you feeling after you have seen it? What thoughts does it make you think of? It struck me in a particular way. I will post about that later, however, I’m interested to see how it strikes you… This could be neat.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ev0lib5b9CQ]

In Faith in Real Life

Don’t read this if you don’t want to see a Shrink Wrapped Puppy…

May 10, 2008 1 Comment

So, maybe this is a little mean, or maybe it is just funny (as I intended it to be…) Noah has been in potty training mode for the past couple days and he’s doing amazing with it. You would think he was born to use a toilet. Except he hasn’t quite figured out yet that the bowl contains water. So, anyhow, he was doing his usual thing except this time he had Mr. bailey on the toilet with him. Mr. Bailey happens to be his favorite stuffed animal. I look away for literally one second, and Mr. bailey is doing the back stroke in a medium sized porclain swimming pool, equipped with “water fall”. So, Noah accidentally sent Mr. Bailey into the “yucky water”…

Well, what would you do? Would you fish him out right away? Or flush it and start fresh with some clean water?

I fished him out, for fear that more things would enter the pool.

So, upon getting Mr. B out, I quick threw him in the sink for his mandatory clean up session. Story goes on that Noah went the rest of the day without Mr. Bailey because he was in the wash getting fully sanitized. Anyhow, here is where it gets fun… for me at least. Tiffany put together two baskets of house hold supplies to raffle off for our talent offering at church, and she went out and purchased some shrink wrap in order to make the baskets look pretty. Well… I was the shrink wrapper. I’ve never shrink wrapped anything before, and I need to be honest here, and let you know that this was actually pretty exciting for me. My mind began to race thinking about all of the things that could be shrink wrapped. And then it hit me. What if I were to shrink wrap Mr. Bailey! Classic. What would Noah do? What would he think? So, I did it. Now, Noah had not gotten up from his nap yet so the surprise was waiting for him when he came downstairs.

{Cut to pictures…}

So, he finally thought it was funny. I had a good laugh, and Tiffany just laughed at me. Ah well… I enjoyed it. “Simple minds” as my grandmother would say.

Can you remember anyone doing anything like that to you when you were little? What was it? Comment below… I’d love to hear your stories! Maybe I could even try it out with Noah or Grace.

All in good fun, of course.

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Plans Foiled!

May 9, 2008 No Comments

disc golf

So, today the forecast is not looking good. It is raining pretty steady and hard here, and that pretty much puts the hammer to the plans I had for this afternoon. Today I was all set to head out to Tyler State Park and play a round of disc golf with Rick Craven. So, not only is it raining, but I am feeling pretty bummed about canceled plans.

What about you? Have any weather related plans this weekend that this potential nonstop monsoon could ruin?

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Where have all the college students gone?

May 8, 2008 2 Comments

At our church right now, we are right on the tail end of a campaign called Focus on Your Family. It is put together by you guessed it, Focus on the Family. Research shows that up to 80% of students leave the church within 12 months of graduating. Some have called this the great “Graduation Evacuation”. Their generation is being called the Bridgers, following up after their parents who were either Boomers or Busters. Our bridger generation is comprised of aproximately 3 million evangelicals. Which is merely 4%. That is down 4.9 million from their parents generation which were at least 16% evangelicals.

Where have all the college students gone? Some of you may remember the old Paula Cole song, “Where have all the cowboys gone?” Very simple question being asked. Where have the cowboys gone? Well, I suppose the church world is reeling with a similarly simple question. Where have all the college students gone?

I was sitting at lunch today with a guy who is in college and who happens to also serve in the Youth Ministry here at church and we were talking about just this thing. Not so much where are they, but how can we do a better job of keeping them in the church. We began to talk about well, what is the church really? Knowing that the church isn’t bricks and mortar. The church is flesh and blood. It is you and I, the Bride of Christ. Interesting…

What do you see the church as?

Is your church: a building, a Pastor, a Youth Leader, a facility?

Next question: If that is the case, then what happens when the Pastor leaves, or the facility gets run down, or not as flashy as it used to be? If that is how you would define what Church is then do you in essence loose your church when one of those things is lost?

{Caution: I am thinking and writing at the same time. Scary I know…}

But, what if we believed that we truly were the bride of Christ, and we were the church even outside of our pretty walls, projection screens, and dynamically lit worship centers. What if we truly believed and practiced what it meant to be the church. Things such as “devoted to the apostles teachings, devoted to fellowship, devoted to the breaking of bread, and devoted to prayer.” {Acts:2:42} Or what about a few chapters later in Acts chapter 4 where we find the early church taking care of the needs of others. {Acts 4:32-37} Or what about in chapter 6 when ministry of the church begins to explode and they need more workers! Feeding people. The original meals on wheels program, or love in action, or whatever you flavor of food service is called. Here we see the disciples were helping to take care of widows, making sure that they had food, and such things. These are the things that make us the church! We see them being devoted to one another, not devoted to a figure head, a building, or church bus.

We are no more “the church” which God intended us to be because we can unify behind a building fund and through faith commit thousands and sometimes millions of dollars to build some structure that we in this present day and age have considered to be a religious looking building. This does not solidify us as the church. We will not win and keep our college age students because of these things! We need to have a great understanding of what the body of Christ truly is.

I was speaking with a parent of a youth group student the other day, and they said that they desired for their child to be more in love with the bridegroom than the bride of Christ. I thought that was very thought provoking. Are you and I falling more in love with the bride of Christ? Meaning flashy programs and slick presentations? Or are we truly falling more in love and growing deeply devoted to the bridegroom?

Maybe it would help if we had a better understanding of what the church truly is, and what it really isn’t. Just thinking…

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

A Great Reminder…

May 7, 2008 1 Comment

As I was reading this morning, I came across something that both challenged me and encouraged me. You know its a good thought if it can do both of those things. It was the kind of statement that said to me, yeah keep going, keep pushing. Yet at the same time it said, go harder, push with added strength.

What is this statement you say? I will tell you. It is found in the book of Ecclesiastes. A very interesting book I must add. Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon. Here is a pretty wise thought for the day.

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going. I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift and the battle is not to the warriors, and neither is bread to the wise nor wealth to the discerning nor favor to men of ability; for time and chance overtake these all. Moreover, man does not know his time; like fish caught in a treacherous net and birds trapped in a snare, so the sons of men are ensnared in an evil time when it suddenly falls on them.” Ecclesiastes 9:10-12

Sounds good huh? Whatever your hands find to do, I love that phrase. Basically do everything with all your strength. Keep pushing hard, going strong, and with great diligence. Very interesting. Do you ever run out of steam? Do you ever want to just throw your hands in the air and say, take a break for a while… I’ve worked hard?

Well even though there are times when I will be the first person to say I am so exhausted and I should just take this one easy, or go light on it, Solomon in all his wisdom reminds us that is not a wise thing to do. He writes in verse 12 that Man does not know his time. He compares us to like fish caught in a net, or birds who have been trapped in a snare. We are here on this earth for a short time, and we have these days and hours to make a difference for our God.

So, today whatever your hands find for you to do, wether it be sports, school work, your job, your friends, whatever it may be, do it with all your might.

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Some things just need to be seen, this must be watched

May 6, 2008 3 Comments

Hey guys, there are several blogs that I read daily once of which is Pete Wilson’s blog. Pete continues to stir my heart and challenge me. They have been doing a series at their church called Plan B. A series that basically says, what do you do when life doesn’t work out the way you expected it to?

Just the other day he shared this video. This is a story of a couple from Cross Point Community Church. This is a must watch. You know how people say you need to see this to believe it. Sometimes you must actually see something to believe it. Well, I could tell you how incredible this is, or how challenging this is, but you must watch this to believe it. Their story challenged me, it made me cry, it made me think, and it made me grateful. Check this video out. I know it is kinda long, but it is well worth the time.

I tried to embed it in here, but I couldn’t get that to work, so please just click this, and it will direct you to the video.

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

You Never Let Go…

May 5, 2008 1 Comment

I have been thinking alot lately. I know… that sounds funny. Seriously though, there have been times in my lief when I have just coasted, and haven’t really thought alot, and then times where I find myself continually thinking about things. Well, right now is just one of those times. I know that I haven’t posted anything in a couple days, but I honestly have been thinking about how best to put into words what I am thinking. I went to Texas to visit my parents and my family. Coming home on the plane, I had several hours to sit and think. (When I wasn’t trying to keep grace out of the guys hair piece in front of me…) But I was thinking and listening to one of my favorite bands, David Crowder Band. I was listening to their new album, Remedy. On that album there is a song called Never Let Go. What a worshipful experience that was for me.

Before we go further with this conversation you need to hear the words to the song. This is a simple video that someone else put together and posted on youtube. Listen to the words. And if you don’t hear them the first time, listen again, or just click here and read them as the music plays.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=Hx5Y9DhoLJQ]

Have you, or are you experiencing something or a time in your life right now when you feel like God has left you behind, or forgotten about you?

“Ever faithful, Ever True, You I know, You never let Go!”

Let me encourage you if you are going through a difficult time, lean on God, and realize that He never changes, He is still the same today as He was yesterday.

What do you think?

In Faith in Real Life

Things I learned while traveling with a 1 year old

May 2, 2008 2 Comments

Well Grace and I have officially returned! We are back here on the east coast after spending a few days with my parents and sisters. It was great to be with them. So, as I was traveling on this trip, I compiled a list of things that I learned while traveling with a 1 year old. Here they are. Plus at the bottom I shared a couple cute pictures of Grace on her plane ride. Here they are…

Mcdonalds isn’t open at 5:00 am
People are a whole lot nicer with a baby on your lap
Waking up at 4:15 isn’t early enough for a 7:30 flight
Even a one year old knows she wants her own seat!!!
Traveling is stressful enough by yourself
You cant comvince a one year old that they really do want to play with their toys
The changing table in the airplane bathroom is really designed for a baby box turtle. Not a human child.
Don’t expect to actually get yourself breakfast in the airport…
Flying with a one year old is a learning experience
When flying back to Philly people will cut you off boarding the plane, even if you have a baby.
When sitting behind business men make sure your baby doesn’t cry otherwise they will stare at you the whole time until they have silence
Due to point #11 surround yourself with grandmoms or women not wearing power suits.