So Grace and I are travelling to Waxahachie Texas to see my family. We flew out yesterday morning really early and as I wrote this we were atually flying somewhere over pennsatuckey. Grace is hanging out right next to me. My parents and my sisters all live there in texas so we are going to have a good time. I probably won’t
be posting a whole lot over the next couple days. See you on Tuesday!!!
-peter
Matthew 5:8 says this, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” I’ll tell you what, I want to see God. I want to see God work in me, through me and in those around me. This is the desire of my heart. However the desire of God’s heart is to have His children be pure in heart, or to have pure hearts. Pure means, “To be singular in substance, without any imperfections or impurities.”
Are our hearts so focused on Christ, and God alone that we are not swerving to the left or to the right? Are we keenly seeking after God with everything we have? Are we solely committed to God and what He desires for our life? That’s a pure heart.
I’ve mentioned this a couple times before, I’ve been reading a blog from a Pastor named Pete Wilson. Pete is the Pastor of Cross Point Church in Nashville Tennessee. The title of his blog is “without wax“. Pete writes as well as other scholars that in the old days cracks in pottery were filled with wax, and then they were sold on the market as being solid, and being quality vessels that you could trust your finest liquids and oils in. However, the only way to test to see if the pot was pure and perfect and sincere was to place it under the test of fire. It was only under the test of fire that you were able to tell if a pot was true, pure or sincere. We get our word sincere from the latin phrase sine cere, meaning “without wax”.
If we want to be used by God, and if we want to see God, we need to loose the wax. We need to see where we are broken, and cracked. Sometimes God may need to cause a little heat in our lives to get us to the point of conviction, or in my thoughts the point of restoration. See, if you don’t know that you’re cracked, you aren’t going to seek restoration. Heat is a good thing. Those trials that God has in your life right now are for good. James writes, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4)
If you would let me translate that into the Peter Gowesky Version it would read something like this.
Hey man, it’s a good thing when God turns up the heat in your life. It’s the heat that helps to forge you and fire you into the vessel that God wants you to be. A vessel that has no cracks, no imperfections, and is without wax covering up, or trying to hide certain flaws. This is part of the process of you becoming a sincere, pure follower of God.
Here’s the bad news. We are all cracked. Not anyone of us are perfect and without defect or blemish. (Romans 3:23)
Here’s the Good news. God says if we turn to Him, and tell Him that we are cracked and need healing, He’ll do it! (Romans 10:9)
Where does the wax need to drip from your life?
So we went to Peace Valley Park today and enjoyed a great time with Noah and Grace. We walked around and really had a fun time. Noah and Grace both brought their “bikes” and we went for a walk. Well we brought some old bread hoping to find some ducks. Sure enough we found them. Here are some pictures of our time.
Between the two ducks they ate a half a loaf of bread! This would not make the Atkins diet happy! What a great time.
This morning at church we are talking about discipleship, and our Pastor, Chris Sutton, reminded us that Jesus wasn’t the only individual to have disciples. He mentioned that John the baptist had disciples as well, and several other guys. We were reminded that to be a disciple really means to be a learner, or someone that is continuing to learn a way, belief, or process.
Well, this made me think. And my good buddy James Chester who blogs at “wakeupsleeper.” wrote in one particular post about worshippers. Check it out, it will make you think. Well, after thinking about worshippers, and then thinking about what we were learning this morning I believe that every single person is a disciple. I think that each one of us is a disciple of something, someone, or some idea. We are striving and longing to be better at baseball, basketball, sudoku, arm wrestling, polka dancing, or whatever hobby you may have. Some of us out there are disciples of the corporate ladder. They are learning what to wear, what to say, and how to adjust our lifestyles in order that we may climb up the next rung on that ladder. Some of us are disciples of MTV and mainstream media. We are learning again what to wear, phrases to say that makes you apart of the club, lifestyle adjustments, and much more. The illustrations are endless. We could apply it to anything from ice fishing to Buddhism.
So the question is, what or who are you a disciple of? Are you truly following hard after God, in order that you may become more like Jesus? Or are we working harder at rising up the success ladder of life? You know, getting the babe, the ring, the job, the cars, the house, the 2.45 kids, the beach house, the nanny, the secured offshore account, and whatever else that we as americans call success.
Maybe it’s time that we truly focus on learning more about Christ, and what He has done for us. Maybe it’s time that we took our eyes off of what our culture is telling us to believe and place our focus on becoming a true disciple of Jesus Christ. You know, a learner and a follower.
Thoughts?
Today I went out and spent $11.88. I was truly a big spender this morning. I traveled to my local WalMart, and bought my two children their own full fledge pool. How fantastic is that? Seriously, they have their own pool, snack shop, and lifeguard service for a one time deal of $11.88. You too can have this deal if you run, don’t walk, to the closest WalMart. Anyhow, all exageration aside, Tiffany and I decided that it would be fun for our kids to have a little baby pool in the back on our deck. So we went out, and reluctantly I bought this thing. I’m gonna be honest, I wasn’t to thrilled at purchasing this oversized plastic dog dish. But you should have heard Noah when I Jammed it in the back of our cruiser. (aka, minivan) He goes like this,
“OH WOW. WOW. WOW.”
You would have thought that I bought him the moon or something really significant. “It Blue” he says. “It Blue mommy. WOW” So, that cheered me up a little bit. We are driving home, and my wife turns to the kids and in the traditional always excited mommy voice, she says, “Who wants to go swimming when we get home.” I looked over at her, and didn’t even say a thing. I looked back at the road, and knew full well what was ahead of me when I got home. In my mind, things were racing through my block head as to why we shouldn’t fill it up and use it today. It’ll be too cold, it’s to close to lunch/naptime… and all the other reasons I could fabricate. However, I didn’t say anything. First smart move all day.
Well, cut to the chase, we got home and I performed dutifully, I filled the pool, and even heated it for them. I put their slide into the pool and then we let them at it. Well, this was the greatest thing that we could have ever done for both of these kids. They loved it. They went down the slide, splashed water, they were giggling and laughing and having an amazing time.
Well, you know how you learn stuff from your kids. Yeah, well today was one of those moments for me. My kids were living in that moment. They were just laughing and they were focused on the here and the now. They didn’t allow the thought of the ever approaching nap time spoil their fun. They weren’t thinking about what they were going to have to eat for dinner. They weren’t worried about if their pool was as cool as the neighbors pool, or if their swim suit flattered their particular build. No. They lived in the moment. They splashed it up. They laughed and slid into the pool. They taught me a huge lesson.
How often do we sit around and look at other people’s stuff, and say to ourselves, man that would be great. I wish that I had that. My car isn’t as good as theirs. Or if only I looked more like Brad Pitt, or whatever holllywood A lister you long to be. When we do that kind of a thing, we are completely blowing off what God has given us right now, what we have been blessed with today.
For me, I will never forget this day, the day that $11.88 thrilled my kids beyond belief. God has given each of us so much, yet all to often we look at it and say, why isn’t it better? Or more like that persons.
Live in today. Live today to the max. Don’t let tomorrows worries encroach upon all of the fun and blessings that are in front of you right now. Hmm. Sounds almost Biblical huh? Something like, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” (Matthew 6:34)
So, anyhow, I can tell you where to get a sweet deal on a baby pool!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0x-iUVBMSc&eurl=http://withoutwax.tv/]
So what happens when everything does’t turn out the way that we wished it would. What happens when life thows a one two knock out punch. It’s just absolutely gut wrenching. The kind of punch that knocks the wind right out of you. What is our response? Check out this video. It’s from Crosspoint Church in Nashville, TN. Their pastor is Pete Wilson, his blog is www.withoutwax.tv, which happens to be one of the blogs I read daily.
But what happens when life deals you incredibly hard situations? I wonder have you ever come across anything like that? I’d love to hear your story.
How did Plan B work out for you?
In the effort to save some money my wife and I have decided to get rid of our Tivo service. Sounds good huh? Well, if I knew how great it was going to be, I would have returned that box a long time ago… So, it’s been a week since we have gotten rid of our blessed Tivo! Isn’t that amazing? No more entertainment at the click of a beautifully designed ergonomically correct remote. Actually we should be honest, we got rid of the whole thing. No more cable here. I don’t say this in any kind of judgemental way, like, “YOU NEED TO REPENT FROM YOUR SINS AND GET RID OF YOUR CABLE BOX!”. Not at all. I mean, we can still be friends if you have cable… 🙂
To be honest with you, I don’t miss it. I don’t miss it at all. I feel more productive. It is great. I have found that I have more time to do things that I really want to do. I love being cable free. Let’s see how I do after a month or two. But after a week, I’m doing pretty good. And saving $33.
So I was reading in the book of Amos recently and I came across a passage that literally blew my mind. Check this out. This is Amos chapter 5 vs 21-24…
“I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
This terminology sounds so interesting to me. “I reject your festivals.” To me it sounds like… I reject your Easter Service, I reject your Christmas Eve service. “I reject your solemn assemblies” Sounds to me like I reject your worship services. I’m not going to listen to your Choirs, and Cantata’s and special music. I reject your Vesper services. I reject your prayer meetings. I won’t even listen to the sound of your musicians. That’s my translation. Isn’t that crazy? It blows my mind.
It appears to me that all of those formula’s we have created for worship, and public services are maybe not what God is looking for.
“But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
Hmm… It seems to me that God is more concerned with justice and righteousness than how flowery our prayers can be. Or how professional our music is when it comes time for “worship”. I think that an act of worship is to lead a life that is striving for righteousness and justice.
Side note, I also believe that when all of those public and private services are done by a person who has justice and righteousness in their heart and mind that it is absolutely God honoring. I absolutely believe that God listens and hears the cries and the prayers, and the songs of His people WHEN they are in a right relationship with Him.
Just some thoughts… We need to make sure that before we go and polish our worship services that we go and polish our lives.
I am quite literally ready to explode! My head is ready to pop off. As a kid I used to play with a little water propelled rocket. You poured water in the fuselage of the rocket, and then you pumped the rocket up with air, and released the trigger which sent the rocket off into the upper levels of our atmosphere. I feel like I have water stuck in all of my sinus cavities, and someone has stuck a pump up to both nostrils, and is currently pumping to their little heart’s content and is anxiously awaiting my head to go zipping off into space. See that “Ethmoid” place on that picture? Yeah, that’s the spot where all the pressure is stemming from and it is shooting out in all directions.
Last night I was riding in the car with my wife, and she asked me why I was crying. After I asked her to repeat herself twenty times because I can’t hear either, I told her, I can’t help myself! My eyes, are bursting forth at the seams, flooded with tears. The water is finding it’s way out! I’m telling you, I cannot wait to have normal pressure again. I just want to be able to breathe normal! AHHH!!! I hate sinus infections!
So, today we took the kids to a dairy farm. It was really interesting. Noah was thrilled to see all the cows and the tractors, and the cats. It was right up his alley. At this particular dairy farm, there were about 200+ cows. So, as you can imagine, this was just about all a little boy could take in. Anyway, we were walking through where the calves were. They were chained up to an individual hut. Each one having their own suite. They were different sizes, colors, and temperaments. Some would let you walk up to them and pet them, others would freak out over just looking their way. Then their was this one little fella who didn’t move at all when the anxious 2 1/2 year old came lumbering at him. In fact the calve just sat there and looked up at him. Noah pet him and moved on to the next young animal. When I questioned the farmer as to the age of the calve, he told me that he was born last night, in the middle of the night. We were there at 10 in the morning. Basically the first experience this cow has in this world is having an exuberant young boy come running up to where he was sleeping peacefully and poke at him. Really it was quite a funny sight. Less than a day old this guy was. That amazed me. I also asked why are these cows kept separately in individual huts? The response was that they need milk till they are 8 weeks old. So they are kept in this little area for 8 weeks where they are feed milk, ground corn, cotton seed, and corn silage. The most important mix is the milk.
It was funny to see the different cows. They were different ages, and colors and temperaments as I said before. It makes me think about us. It makes me think of when both of my kids were born, how precious a time that was. It makes me think about the new life that God gives us. How we are fed milk until we are ready for meat and substance.
How refreshing it was to see new life. I hope that your life is filled with new growth, and new opportunities, just like that little 12 hour old cow.