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Faith in Real Life

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In Faith in Real Life

Can you tell he’s in school?

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A little bit ago I blogged about Noah’s first day of school, and how grown up that little man is getting.  Yesterday Tiffany caught some really funny stuff on video.  Here is the background story:  Noah has a great teacher in school, as evidenced by this video.  He is learning a ton of things.  He loves music, he loves gym, he loves creative times, and all of the other activities that happen at school.  He came home from school yesterday and wanted to “Teach” his little sister Grace all of the things that he has learned.  Make sure and pay attention to Grace throughout the movie too.  She is just as funny if not funnier!

Man they are going to love me when they get older!  This stuff is priceless!

~Peter

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

 

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In Faith in Real Life

Signs of Fall

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Here are a few reasons why I know that fall is upon us!

  • I have been up in the attic rooting for boxes of ‘seasonal’ clothing…
  • We’ve added a second blanket on our bed! (I LOVE IT!  Welcome back!)
  • I am anxious to get our wood stove going.
  • I see fallen trees and I salivate.
  • The rake came out of the garage this weekend…
  • I planted some spring bulbs
  • My thermometer is reading 47 in the morning!
  • I’m looking forward to my first glass of Apple Cider.

And the most significant of all?

  • Dean turned the heat on in our offices!

I love summer, but I love fall too.  I’m looking forward to all of the things that fall brings!

What about you?  How do you know it is fall?

~Peter

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In Faith in Real Life

Community

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Community is defined as a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.  The definition goes on to describe a sense of ownership and desire.  Have you ever felt apart of community?  Have you ever experienced community in such a rich way that you were better off because of it?

Community has become a central and vital role in my life.  I am apart of many different communities.

  • I have my closest community of the most important woman out there and two children.  We experience life together in the most common ways. My Family.
  • I have my close friends.  We laugh with one another, enjoy meals together, bring our families together, speak truth into one another’s life.
  • I have my community group.  This is the group of people from FBC that gather bi-weekly to talk, laugh, encourage one another, pray together, learn, and build one another up.
  • I have recently become a part of a scholastic community of men every week for seminary.
  • I have my neighbors.  Those people who live directly around me.  It has been a great joy in the life of our family to get to know them and be known by them.
  • I have a growing group of students.  I lead and pastor the youth ministry here at FBC, I am gratefully submerged into the community of junior high and high school students.
  • I am apart of a growing community of people online; here on this blog, on Facebook and Twitter.  Even if it’s only 140 characters at a clip, community can be found there.
  • I am apart of the local church body here at FBC.  My family and I fit under the umbrella of those who are inside the Christian faith.
  • Ultimately I am apart of the community of Christ and the Church worldwide.

Community runs through just about every aspect of my life.  It molds me, shapes me, and makes me who I am today.  I can’t avoid this.  How has community affected you?  What communities are you in?  Did I miss any?

~Peter

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In Faith in Real Life

I guess you really did it this time

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I love music.  I enjoy making music, listening to music, and finding new music.  I happened to catch a portion of MTV’s Video Music Awards two weeks ago (the VMA’s).  I have been on the fence about a particular artist until recently.  I’m talking about none other than Taylor Swift.  It sealed the deal for me when several weeks ago now she included one of my favorite pastors, Pete Wilson and his family in her most recent video.  Check that story out here.

I happened to be watching during Taylor Swift’s performance.  It was unreal.  She did an incredible job.  The message she was sending was huge!  Since MTV has taken all of the video’s down from youtube all I have is the audio from her performance.  Listen to this song.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF0x2_mXjM4]

Regardless of you know what happened in 2009 during the VMA’s or not(Kanye West!), this song still speaks profoundly.

Some of us feel like Taylor is singing about our lives.  Maybe you’ve lost your balance on a tightrope.  Maybe you’ve blown your relationships with everyone around you.  Maybe you’ve cursed your family out and left them behind without a care.  Maybe you’ve gotten yourself  chemically dependent on some thing or another.  Perhaps you’ve given parts your sexuality away to people it was never intended for.  Guilt can set in and just about wreck a person and cause them to feel worthless and alone.

Jesus knows about this and took care of this problem.  See the reality is that every single one of us has ‘blown it and left ourselves in the warpath.’  We’ve all ‘lost our balance on the tightrope’ of life.  Jesus died on a cross, was buried as every other dead man is, and unlike every other dead man He rose from the dead!(1 Corinthians 15:1-4)  Because of that one action you and I have a hand back up on the tight rope.  We have been picked up out of the warpath and placed in safety.  Forgiveness is here for you.  Hope is here for you.  Restoration is here for you.  True life is here for you.

I watched as a young woman in the spotlight demonstrated forgiveness on national television.  I listened to a musical narrative that made me immediately think of the one who is in the business of forgiveness; Jesus Christ.

~Peter

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In Faith in Real Life

Prayer part 2

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I’ve been thinking a lot since the last time I brought up prayer on this post over here.  The question there was is ceasless prayer possible.  I would still be interested in hearing your thoughts by the way… I haven’t been able to kick the idea of ceaseless prayer though.  Prayer is such a vital part of who we are as those in the Christian faith.  Truth be told sometimes I get frustrated with the amount and with the quality of my prayer life.

I was reading the other day an amazing quote by a fourth-century Orthodox monastic writer, Evagrius of Pontus, he says,

“A theologian is one who knows how to pray, and he who prays in spirit and in truth is by that very act a theologian.”

Many of us want to know God and understand the ways and workings of Him.  Yet often we don’t dedicate ourselves to prayer.  In my desire to understand ceaseless prayer I came up with one thought that may help.  I wonder if ceaseless prayer would increase in possibility if we would take our focus off of praying for ourselves and realize/pray for  the needs of others.

During our family vacation last week I was making it a practice to spend some time each day in prayer for my kids and my wife, as well as my extended family and then onto my church.  I’m telling you it took time!  It increased my prayer life!  I was praying with more fervency and certainly regularity.  Now to keep that habit going I have gotten a little black book.  A small moleskin and it will be my prayer journal for my immediate family, my extended family, my friends, my church and the world around me.  This is not the end all solution, but it is one way that I have found to help me since the last thought.

What about you?  Have you found a specific tool or method that has increased your prayer life? Share with the rest of us so we can learn from your wisdom.

~Peter

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In Faith in Real Life

Refreshed???

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So, I didn’t pull a Michael Jordan and come out of retirement only to retire just a year later.  I know it’s been about a week and a half since my last post, but in that last week and a half my family and I have tried to spend some very specific time of unplugging and resting.  We are so blessed to be given some time down at the Jersey Shore and laugh, swim, crab, fish, sleep, refresh, and unplug as a family.  So we have been gone for the last week….  At first I felt bad that I hadn’t set up any posts to go live while I was gone, and then I just forgot about it.  Intentionally.

Refreshment is an integral part of any persons life.  However it is even more crucial for groups of people to do the same thing.  Think about  it… It’s hard enough to find times of refreshment for your own schedule.  Now try and schedule that with 4 peoples schedules.  Fortunately for us our kids schedules don’t run our life yet!

What do you do for refreshment?  Do you have any habits/practices/disciplines that you have built into your life to make sure that you have significant times of refreshment throughout your life? Let’s hear it.

Here are some of the pictures from our week together!  We had a blast!

~Peter

[slideshow]

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In Faith in Real Life

School Boys

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Today is my son Noah’s first day back to school.  He is in a Kindergarten Readiness class because he just misses the cut off for our school district.  It is crazy…  I can remember when we brought him home from the hospital.  He was so small.  Today he is bigger than all of the other kids in his class!

It is funny, both Noah and I have started school in the same week.  Noah started kindergarten readiness and I started seminary…  Today I feel old!  A son in school 5 days a week and me studying 5 days a week!  It’s the kind of thing that you now is coming, but you never think will actually come.

Have you ever had one of those moments?  What was it for you?

Today I am going to try and live out each and every moment.  Taking them in and remembering them forever.  We won’t be back to his first day for Kindergarten Readiness again.

Don’t rush your life.

~Peter

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In Faith in Real Life

It never ends… Or does it?

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Okay, here’s another ‘true life’ moment.  I grew up watching Lamb Chops Play Along with my little sister.  I’ll admit it.  Shari Lewis would get me everytime with that silly little sock puppet, Lamb Chop.  It was a show that hit PBS in the early 90’s and at the end of the show there was always a rendition of this annoying little song.  [Youtube has once again shown itself to be an invaluable resource.]  Here it is…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNTxr2NJHa0]

The song that doesn’t end.  It goes on and on my friend… and the rest of the song is history.  Or something like that.

Last night I was involved in a discussion on a verse from 1 Thessalonians 5.  It is simple.  It is short, and it is memorable.  The question is, is it possible?

Here’s 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing;”  Just like that Shari Lewis, Lamb Chop song… It never ends.  It goes on and on…

I want to hear from you… what do you think?  Have you ever experienced a time in your life when you extended periods of prayer?  Would you qualify any of your prayer times as ceaseless prayer?

This is a difficult thought.  What do you do when your sleeping?  What about when your on the phone?  How can I pray without ceasing?  There are several ideas that people have had to try and see this happen in their life.  I like what Charles Spurgeon said in his sermon, “Pray without Ceasing” on 1 Thessalonians 5:17:

First, let us labor as much as we can to prevent all sinful interruptions. “Pray without ceasing.” Then if it be impossible to be in the act of prayer always, at least let us be as much as possible in that act; and let us prevent those interruptions which I mentioned in the early part of my discourse, the interruptions occasioned by our own sin. Let us endeavor to keep clear, as far as we can, of anything and everything in ourselves, or round about us, that would prevent our abounding in supplication. And let us also keep clear of interruptions from the sins of others.

While I don’t think that sin prevents you from praying even while you are in the midst of the act of sinning, I do wonder how much more we would pray if sin were further removed from our lives.  I wonder what our prayer lives would look like if we allowed our schedule a little breathing room?  What if we so valued communication with God that we built it into our schedule?  I like how Spurgeon focus’ on removing the prayer interrupters.  That may be a great place to start.  Figure out what prevents you from praying and remove that from your life.

I am certain that prayer, and my commitment to prayer needs to be priority in my life.

What do you think?  Is it possible?  What habits have you found/created to help you spend significant times in prayer?

~Peter

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In Faith in Real Life

And so it begins…

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Being a guy, it should go without saying that I love and look forward to a good adventure.  I have enjoyed backpacking some really beautiful places, exploring all along the way.  I have enjoyed spear fishing adventures in several different states, and I have most recently been on an adventure in Costa Rica this past summer.

Tonight begins a new adventure in my life.  Tonight I step foot into the adventurous world of seminary.  For the next three years I will be a seminary student.  This is one of the most exciting, faith building, scary, and rewarding experiences that my wife and I have had yet.  This has been in the works now for a little over a year and finally tonight it begins.

I will be attending Biblical Seminary in Hatfield PA.  I will be studying for a Masters of Divinity.  I am really looking forward to being stretched, challenged and to grow in my knowledge and understanding of the Word of God.  I am assembling a prayer team as I head out on this adventure.  If you would like to receive periodic emails from me with a prayer list let me know!    I would love to have you partner with me.

So, here goes!

~Peter

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In Faith in Real Life

Seasons Change

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I love the seasons.  I particularly like the change of seasons.  For whatever reason I enjoy change.  I like when spring turns to summer, I love when summer turns to fall, and I am anticipating fall turning to winter.  There is nothing like when winter’s grip breaks loose and spring begins to show herself.  Right about now I have had enough of the heat wave and I am excited for it to cool off a bit.  Alas, that is why I love the change of seasons.  I enjoy change.

Seasons aren’t just weather related.  Many of us have been through seasons of life and we have seen changes come and go in our own lives.  It has been over 8 months since I have last written anything here on the Salt Lick.  There have been moments when I felt like writing something and then I paused, thought about it and decided against it.  For whatever reason I felt like I was in a season of life where I didn’t have anything else to say.  The last thing that I wanted to do was just add to the noise in life.  So I felt it best to remain quiet.

Seasons change.  There have been a lot that has happened in the last 8 months.  Some really amazing things.  It has been an incredible 8 months and I am expecting another incredible 8 months (hopefully more).

I am excited to share them with you, and I will let it out in dribs and drabs as time permits.  It is hard to unpack what God has been doing in my life over the last 8 months in one post.  It will be several.  Tomorrow there will be big news though.  I have been waiting to share this with you because I am really excited to see how God works in this particular situation…

I know for me the last 8 months have been incredible.  But what about you?  What has happened in the last 8 months? Leave a comment below and let’s hear about it!

~Peter

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