Faith in Real Life – Page 6

In Faith in Real Life

Don’t Budge

April 13, 2011 No Comments

Firm. Immovable. Steadfast.

What do you think of when you read those three words?

I think of a mountain protruding from the ground. I think of an enormous oak tree with it’s roots spread far and wide. I think of how these types of things go deep into the ground and knit themselves to the area. There is no casual removal of either of these two items. There must be intentional destruction to cause these things to be moved.

1 Corinthians 15:58 says, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”

I was reading that over this morning and thinking about what it means to be steadfast, and immovable as a follower of Jesus. What does that look like to you?

That’s challenging!

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Waiting

April 12, 2011 No Comments

One of the hardest things to do is wait.

There are times when I am talking with my kids and I’ll say, “hold on a minute, you need to wait.”

Grace’s response 99.9% of the time is, “But Daddy, I just can’t wait any longer.”

I get it. Waiting is hard.

We wait for all kinds of things in life.

Right now I feel like I am in a big waiting game. There is a little girl that I am waiting to meet. I want to hold her, feel her grip my finger for the first time, find out what color eyes she has, and see if she embodies the name that we have picked out!

But now we wait.

This made me think. I’m sure that I am not the only one who is waiting right now for something. In fact, some of you have been waiting for something far longer than 9 months.

So here’s the question: How do you keep yourself sane in the waiting?

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Is Love Winning?

March 3, 2011 2 Comments

Recently both the twitter-sphere and blogosphere have exploded due to a trending topic. At this point in time I am not bringing any late breaking news to the scene, an my intention is not to pile on; either on Pastor Bell, Pastor Piper, or any of the other big names that have written about this situation.

If you don’t already know what is going on I would reccomend that you catch up on the happenings through the blog post of Christianity Today writer, Sarah Pulliam Bailey. You can read her full article here.

I am sure that I cannot add anything to this already complex situation but I want to ask a question.

Is love winning?

As I read the blog posts and tweets of some really scholarly men and women concerning Rob Bell’s new book, I am concerned with the behavior and attitude that is shown. I acknowledge that I don’t always interact perfectly either, so I am certainly not trying to cast the first stone, or the second, or the third. The content of Rob Bell’s book I have very little knowledge of at this time. I intend to read the book at a later date. But the title I can whole heartedly agree with. The problem is that love is not winning. All of the hype that surrounds this book is proving that the Christian community is not loving its own the way that you would think it would.

The problem with love not winning is that we are showing to a watching world what Evangelical Christianity is really like. There is no option on Google that only allows you to sign on to the special evangelical portions of the internet if you are truly a member of the same variety. This is all pubic information that will never go away. The world wide web now holds all of us accountable for our writings and attitudes.

Jesus says in John 13

34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you that you also love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

Paul gives us a stirring reminder of the power of love in 1 Corinthians 13

1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;

7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

With our back biting and written tongue lashings, what are we showing to the world around us? I’m pretty sure that Jesus said if you have a problem with someone write a blog about how small minded and misguided they are. No. In fact Jesus said the opposite. Jesus says in Matthew 18 go to the person in private and share with them their offense. According to Jesus there are two steps that need to be taken before ever taking the offense public.

How do you respond to your neighbor who says, “If Christians treat their own kind like that, why would I want to become one.” Or what if they said, “Does your church treat people like that?” We must be so careful to show to a watching world what really loving one another should look like.

I love what Philippians has to say about discernment:

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11

This has stirred a debate in my mind. Is love winning in my life or are there areas where I look a lot like this “Rob Bell Debacle”. What about you? Is love winning in your life?

Let love abound.

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

The Little Theologian That Could…

March 1, 2011 No Comments

Yesterday as we were traveling from home to school, Noah said the most incredible thing. First we were talking about the fact that it was raining, and then we spoke about the colors of the cars around us. As I pulled into the church parking lot I noticed that he was once again looking out of the back window up in the sky towards the steeple. I asked him what he was looking at. His response direct from his mouth;

“The cross. It is a kind of treasure for the Church.”

I smiled back at him and said, “yeah you are right it sure is buddy.”

My little theologian.

That challenged me right to my core. So I’ll pass the challenge on to you.

Have you looked to the cross today?
Is the cross a treasure to you?

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Restless Hearts

February 22, 2011 No Comments

From Confessions:

“We are made for God, and our hearts are restless until we find our rest in Him.” ~Augustine

It’s time to rest. Our world desperately needs rest. We live in ridiculously busy culture that moves at a pace that most people can only try and keep up with.

The God of all creation on the seventh day said it is time to rest.

Where are you finding your rest?

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

A New Exodus?

February 21, 2011 No Comments

Have you ever prayed for your own Exodus?

I mean, have you ever prayed that you would be able to sell your house and move? Have you ever prayed for a new job? Have you ever prayed for your neighbors to move? Have you ever prayed to be beyond car problems? Have you ever prayed for real friends that would usher you out of loneliness?

When I read the book of exodus I can’t help but notice that there is a group of people who are tired of their situation, and are longing to move on, have new neighbors and get out of the reality that surrounds them. This people group is the Israelites, and they are slaves to Egypt. They are the ones who are making bricks, hauling bricks and anything else that their masters force upon them.

Jump forward. Jump to February 11th, 2011. President Mubarak responds to the masses protesting his leadership and he steps down from power. Egyptians crash into Cairo’s Tahrir square and begin chanting “Egypt is free! Egypt is free!”

Jump to today. If you are a Coptic Christian, (an Egyptian Christian) do you think that you will ever read Exodus the same again? The Coptic Church has been persecuted and abused for their faith in Jesus Christ. However, right now there are conversations being had between both Christians and Muslims saying we don’t hate each other. We actually like each other. Conversations are beginning to be had saying, “You Christians really aren’t second class citizens.” The story goes on.

Right now around the world from us there is a movement going on. There is something happening. There are significant happenings taking place. Do not be dismayed. The God who moves powerfully in the Old Testament is still as powerful now and is still working in ways that we can only try and understand.

We need to continue to pray for the nation of Egypt and their new leadership. Pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ that live in Egypt. This movement is not yet over.

When I read Exodus, I don’t think that I will read it the same way again.

What area in your life do you need to pray for an Exodus?

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Color Changes Taste!

February 18, 2011 1 Comment

Whew, this has been a rough week! Starting this past Sunday afternoon, our household has gone into a state of sickness. It has been pretty nasty! As of yesterday we found out that there has been some Pneumonia, and Bronchitis walking around here. UGH.

That explains my very limited posting over the course of this past week. Something which I am not wildly thrilled about! My goal is to post 5 days a week, M-F. Anyway… This past week as I said, Noah and Tiffany have both been sick. So, it’s a little bit like Dr. Dad around here. Which let me tell you is a scary thing. Mostly pasta for dinner, and last night a pizza. Every other day–prayer and fasting.

Noah has been quite feverous and just all around run down. Hence this picture:

Our go to medicine of choice is some knock off brand tylenol. However, it is not quite the taste that Noah is looking for. He resisted taking this medicine mostly based on the color. And I quote, “No, No, I don’t want to take that, I want blue, green, purple or yellow medicine.”

In steps my brilliant wife. (sick and all)

One drop of magic… and…

…the boomsauce has been made. The fever has been reduced and the child has been returned to a moderately low-grade-fever coma. Fortunately, as of right now Noah seems to be on the mend. And so does Tiffany.

So, here’s the question. Do we as adults believe that the color changes the flavor?

Does it matter to you what color something is? Think as deep or shallow on that one. I’m interested.

~Peter

I think history has shown that color has made a difference. What about today?

In Faith in Real Life

February 14th 2002

February 15, 2011 No Comments

Yesterday my wife Tiffany and I celebrated our 9th anniversary of our very first date. I’ll never forget. I took her to Red Lobster in Langhorne PA. I can’t really remember what I ordered for dinner, but that didn’t matter. It was being with her that mattered.

Nine years later and here we are with two and 3/4 kids and a ton of memories in between. It has been so good to think about how God has been faithful to us through these last nine years. Last night we enjoyed some time together talking about our past together. There have been funny moments, sad moments and just some really enjoyable ones too. God has been so good to me. According to Proverbs I have found favor with God.

He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. ~ Proverbs 18:22

I went up in the attic last night to pull down a few of the older pictures. These were during the dating phase! Look at my magic.

I know this is one day after Valentines Day, but I have learned more about love, more about myself and more about God through my relationship with Tiffany. I am so grateful for that.

Last night I sent out a tweet encouraging you to check out Brad Lomenicks blog post. I don’t know how many of you actually went and read it, but you should have. So, I’m going to encourage you again. Check this out by Brad Lomenick.

Love truly never fails.

I’m thankful for a woman who never gives up loving me.

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Watch Your Back Bieber

February 14, 2011 No Comments

This past weekend was my Brother-in-law’s wedding. Everything went great making it quite the weekend. However I found myself waking up on Monday saying, what happened to Friday? It was all totally worth it. There were some really memorable moments. Fortunately no one fainted in his wedding, unlike my wedding where he went down right in the middle of it all! I thought about standing up and faking it. But I didn’t.

One of my favorite moments of the whole weekend was watching my son Noah. He was unbelievable. He was hysterical. He was in his zone. There was a point during the reception when Noah started busting his groove-thang. I mean this kid was breaking it down. Here is one of the many pictures that I took of him in his moment.

I’m telling you he was in the zone. There was no distracting him. His crazy legs were going off. His hands were moving and boxing his face and pointing and going all over. This kid has some moves! Watch your back Bieber; this kid is coming to get you!

Mid way through the dance fest the DJ even took notice of the action on the dance floor and called everyone’s attention to Noah.

He danced harder.

I could not have made Noah do anything other than what he was going to do.

Looking back on that series of events there is so much that I can learn from my little man.

Be who you’re going to be. To many of us try and be someone who we are not. We talk differently, act differently and walk differently than who we really are. Be who you were made to be!

Don’t care whose watching. It wouldn’t have mattered who was watching Noah. He was happy to be moving and grooving. Once the circle formed around him it seemed to set him into motion even more! Don’t be embarrassed about who you are.

Smile. This seems simple, but take joy in what you are doing. If it is who you are and you are doing what you were made to do, then do it with a smile on your face. I have a friend who is a funeral director. We laugh together all the time. I love that guy! You would think that he would be pretty somber based upon his profession. He’s not. He does an awesome job at what he does too, with a smile on his face! So let it out. Smile.

We all could learn a lesson or two from my dancing maniac.

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Joe Blow

February 3, 2011 No Comments

Last November we started a teaching series in our student ministry here at FBC called Joe Blow. Over the course of this series we looked at the question, “Does my life count, and can my life make a difference?” Trying to answer these questions started with the idea what does God want from us? We came up with 3 basic ideas from Micah 6:8.

God wants you to Practice Justice. This has the idea of making justice happen. When you practice justice you can’t help but right the wrong when you see it. This can be a huge event like stopping the abduction of children in Uganda, or something small like standing up for the bullied kid in class, or the office whipping boy. Whatever you do, Practice Justice.
God wants you to Love Kindness. Remember buddy the elf? What was Buddy’s favorite thing? Smiling right? “Smiling’s my favorite!” Make kindness the heartbeat of who you are. Make compassion your favorite thing.
God wants you to Walk Humbly with Him. Be humble! Humility is not thinking more of yourself then you ought to. It is about having the right perspective of yourself in relationship to God. Do that.

One of the things we did during this series was to spotlight an individual who is making a significant difference in the world by seeking justice. One of those individuals is a guy by the name of Scott Harrison. You can check out his story over here. Scott started an organization called charity:water. Charity:water exists to provide clean water to those who otherwise would not have clean healthy water. 1 in 6 people do not have access to clean water. That is unreal!

I share this with you because recently I have found a way to use this blog to help make a difference. You’ll notice in the sidebar, on the right side, a box that in hot pink says, “Help me support charity:water”. This is provided by an organization called socialvibe that “recognizes that in social media, individuals hold the key to generating attention and influence that brands need.” What they do is provide opportunities for sponsors to make small donations to causes like charity:water.

Here’s where you come in. Each day you can pop over to thesaltlick.tv and click on that button that says, “click here to help for free”. You will be asked to do some small task and after doing that they will make a small donation to charity:water. It is as simple as that.

We may be average and ordinary joe blow types, but with the click of a mouse we can make a small difference. Will you join me in helping charity:water? I’d love to see that counter hit 10,000 gallons! Let’s do it!

~Peter