Open Your Bible

Today on the way home from work I was coming back into Blanchester, and saw a church sign with one of those clever messages on it. You know the ones that I'm talking about the ones that always make you chuckle when you drive by and see them.

First I am going to post some pics of some funny pics I have seen before.

Ok, so now back to the one I saw today. This sign read "Open your mind, open your heart, open your Bible." A great message, but as a Christian I would say that they have this a little out of order, since I am assuming that is who this is meant for since most Non-Christians wouldn't have a Bible.

Shouldn't this sign read "Open your Bible, Open your heart, Open your mind?" Isn't that the order it would have the greatest impact in your life?

Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself in the LORD,and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:23
The steps of a man are established by the LORD,when he delights in his way
Psalm 40:8
I delight to do your will, O my God;your law is within my heart."
Psalm 111:2
Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them
Psalm 119:16
I will delight in your statutes;I will not forget your word
Psalm 119:24
Your testimonies are my delight;they are my counselors

All of these verses speak of delighting in God, or His law which is the Bible. If we spend our time reading His word and dwelling on His word we will know His law. If we do this and we make this a part of our daily life, it will not only be a delight to Him, but to us as well!" It would indeed open our hearts, and our minds to all that God has to offer us.

I know for Diana and I, we had not been spending much time in the word before attending Elevation. We read maybe once or twice a week, and NEVER together! Since then, and after attending our Small Group we have been spending a lot more time in the word, and wonderfully reaping the benefits of it. God has been blessing us in so many ways. Most of it starting right here at home. It truly is changing the foundation of our lives because we are living and breathing everything we are learning instead of just getting fat in our faith (as Craig like to put it).

I wanted to share one of my top 5 favorites Bible verses in closing. This verse is so true, and can really help you learn to overcome so much! Use it apply it, and own the words of it and allow it to work in your life as I have in mine!

Hebrews 4:12 (English Standard Version)
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

We were made to SERVE!

This is pretty crazy, in the few weeks that we have been attending Elevation I have had several topics that God has laid on my mind and heart to blog about and Craig has beat me to both of them from the pulpit! Lol. I asked him via text if he was hacking into my phone (I put all of these ideas when they come to me in my notepad on my phone) for my ideas.

It really isn't a coincidence, but I believe a God given confirmation of what Craig is preaching on and what God has been laying on my heart, and on the hearts of the people I love dearly in my life.

Diana and I love to serve. We will serve in just about any capacity that is needed. She will works with the kids, me NOT so much. We both enjoy helping with the Youth, and so we volunteered to help out with the Lazer Kraze event this last weekend.

As many of you know I have been a bit under the weather. Saturday we got up around 9 got ready and headed out for a day of outdoor sporting events. First my niece Celia's softball game, which they won 6-5 in the bottom of the 7th! Then my daughter Julie's soccer game which they won 3-2!! Julie was not feeling well either, but bless her heart, she didn't want to let her team and more importantly Coach Angie down by not being able to play. So she stuck it out!!! Very proud of her!

So after all of that we headed straight over to Lazer Kraze, and by the time we got there I was wiped out! I also started having some abdominal pain. It wasn't very pleasant. We decided we too were going to stick it out as long as we could. We made it over to the room, and the kids all sat at their table, and Brent was out arranging some things for the games, and Candy was talking to us about the upcoming Youth Camp. As we were talking we noticed that the kids were sitting there with their pizza's in front of them, patiently waiting to pounce on them. Candy quickly said to Brent "Let's pray so these guys can eat".

The funny part is I really felt God telling me that is exactly how we act sometimes with our faith or more importantly with attitude to serve. We can have all these talents and all these abilities that God has given us to use to serve His kingdom, and we just patiently wait to use them (usually when someone asks us, or tells us to) instead of actually getting off our (as Craig put it) sanctified behinds and putting them to use ourselves.

Craig's message on serving yesterday was phenomenal. I truly enjoy listening to him bring us God's word. Quite frankly he was right on about his message.

In case you missed it he taught on Ephesians 1:3-11

3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.[b] 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.
9 God has now revealed to us his mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill his own good pleasure. 10 And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. 11 Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God,[c] for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.

This passage has one of my favorite topics in it. I love the topic of us being predestined. I actually had this conversation with a previous Pastor who shared different views of the definition of predestination, and of how God has predestined us. I totally agree with how Craig defined and explained predestination and how God has (way before we even born, conceived a purposeful destiny in and through us). God chose me to be a part of Elevation, God chose me to be in Blanchester, God chose me to lead this family, God chose me to write this blog for you to read. Bottom line is GOD CHOSE ME, and guess what HE CHOSE YOU TOO!!

As I was preparing this blog and doing my typical prep, I was reading in Hebrews 12, and came accross this verse...

Hebrews 12:28-29

28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.”

I love the definition of Reverence... "a feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe"

Isn't this how we should be in our attitude of serving the One who created us?

A Journey in Ministry!

Where to start?

I want to tell everyone of this Journey. This journey that my wife and I have been on together this last couple of years! A journey towards ministry! Incorrect, a journey OF ministry!

You might want to grab a snack and a drink, this is going to be a long one!

Let's start with around Christmas of 2007. My wife and I had grown very stagnant at the church we were attending quite frankly so much that I had quit going altogether. I know really, me not at church. It even seems weird to me now that I look back at it. Anyways, I had quit going and Diana had been attending off and on at Dove, and some with her Dad at Northeast as well. I was not interested in any of it, but was still wanting to go to church.

At Easter of 2008 our friends Danny and Sarah Simpson invited us to Center Pointe Church in Goshen. So we went. It seemed like the pastor was talking right to us, we immediately felt like we were called to at least hear the messages. So we decided to meet with Ray and Melissa and move towards becoming members of the church. We dove into serving, Men's group, hanging out with people, serving in any area we could. It was going great. Had been for quite awhile an in the summer of 2009 I stepped down from serving full time for a multitude of reasons, none of which really make much sense now, because in doing so I only let the devil get a small victory! Well, you live and you learn! By Christmas of 2009 we were once again feeling very stagnant at church! Then comes our 1st family vacation to Florida to see my Momma. We had all these plans of spending everyday at the beach, and visiting the zoo and all kinds of other crazy things, but God had a different plan. As we went to visit my mother, we obviously went and checked out her church with her. They had a special guest in to lead their Christmas worship service (you may have heard of Beckah Shae on Klove or Star 93.3, she is amazing!!!!!!) and man was the Spirit of God every hopping in this place, and we needed it. Needless to say, we ended up spending about 90% of our "vacation" with my Mom's church family! We had an awesome time and came back from Florida so refreshed in the Holy Spirit! It was much needed to!

We came back and since we had withdrawn from several roles at our church we had in the process offended some people which was never the intent! So we wanted to mend some fences, but this was not accepted very well.

The night I will never forget is when Diana and I had been asked by someone in leadership to come out for a little get together and hang out, we were asked by the couple hosting it not to come! This devastated Diana! She was really upset and in tears for quite awhile. I mean how could we be coming of this high of the Holy Spirit coming back from Florida, and things turn out the way they were turning out? It just didn't really add up to either of us! So that evening with like $8 in our checking account (we were broke when coming back from vacation LOL) we went to McDonald's (hence the Golden Arches in the pic above).

We had went up, ordered some food for us and the kids, sat down and discussed how we were going to handle things in our life regarding church, and moving on. We both had felt very rejected and both had mentioned never stepping foot in another church at that point, but as we were packing up to leave the most MIRACULOUS thing occurred! Out of nowhere, this Man and Woman came up to us, and asked if they could pray for us! Weird!!!! We were already in the car! Diana and I didn't even notice these people inside, so we aren't really sure where they came from, but this lady prayed for us. She prayed specifically that we were going to be used to Minister! For God's ministry! We thought, how can that be after tonight? Is this lady nuts? She then pointed to me, and said God has a specific plan for you in a ministry role!! At that point all I could think was, Did my Mom send you here to mess with me? LOL, or am I on Candid Camera? LOL.

That was January of 2010. We spent most of last year looking for a church! We visited between 15-25 church's during that time, praying that God would put us where we cold SERVE AGAIN!! I love serving, my wife loves serving, and the best thing of all MY KIDS LOVE SERVING! I have a 15 year old and an 8 year old that would give you the shirt off their own back. How amazing is that! They both have such BIG hearts for God, and for advancing His Kingdom through servitude! I love it!!!

So for those of you who read my blog or my are just my Facebook friends, if you haven't noticed or seen it, my wife and I have found a new Church home! More importantly a phenomenal church family! Our Small Group is amazing! The Youth Group is amazing! The Children's Minister is amazing! I LOVE our Pastor! I LOVE our Worship Pastor (even though he and his brother are not Buckeye fans)! We are quickly making tons of new friends. God is doing amazing things at Elevation Community Church! AMAZING THINGS!!! 11 people were baptized yesterday, one of which was my Mother-in-Law. Which was an amazing blessing to be able to be there and support her in that decision, and to be able to get up and announce it to the church for her! God is soooooooooo GOOD!!!

After all that is said! I will close with this. I may not be an actual minister, BUT I have had many people the last couple of weeks come up to me and tell me that my blog is uplifting to them in the middle of their tough weeks, or people are just coming up to me and saying that they love my blog and it is blessing them.

I love the feedback people, I really do. I speak TOTALLY from a souled out, surrendered, and humbled heart that only happens because of the Grace of God!

I believe this is my Ministry! I will continue to use this tool and many of my other attributes to advance the Kingdom of God.

If life is a game of Chess than I am glad that I have the most powerful piece in the Universe, The King of Kings (and yes Craig, you can quote me on that!) ;-)

Oh yea and I hope I don't get sued for using their logo like this!

The Art of Marriage

What a powerful and moving weekend, so far! Last night my wife and I had made plans to attend "The Art of Marriage" video conference being held at our church and hosted by Warren & Mary Bistline (Big thanks to them, and for their prayers this week).

Looking back over the past week there have been many spiritual attacks that could have made me just say "I'm not going to make it to this conference." It could have been so easy to just stay home an recuperate.

I had a few days of dizzy spells, followed by nausea, and then horrible headaches in the top of my neck/bottom of my head! Yesterday, they finally let up, but today before the conference was over THEY WERE BACK!!

Other attacks! Diana and I had both had a couple of long and grinding days leading up to this weekend, and both had kind of short fuses due to being stressed out! Her by work, me by work and not feeling well. Needless to say, we had a couple of not too pleasant arguments over some of the dumbest things imaginable. (She did forgive me for it by the end of the session on Saturday!)

I am so glad that we attended this conference. I am glad that we persevered and was able to attend.

I was also impressed with the fact that Mike and Carol were able to stay and the commitment they showed not only to their marriage and each other, but to God by sticking it out through the conference with all they were dealing with. They were a true inspiration! God will continue to bless them, and will use them in great ways.

This last two days has already helped our marriage out in several ways. Here are a few ways!

1. Diana and I have in the past said a lot of mean and hurtful things to each other (what married couple hasn't). That finally has closure! We both asked each other for forgiveness for the first time ever, and when it happened it was like a HUUUUUUUGE weight was lifted off of my heart! A much needed relinquishment of burdens that had been held onto for far too long.

2. I had never looked at our marriage as anything but for Diana and I. Never had I even thought of how it really affects my children, grandchildren (don't have any yet, thank God!), great grandchildren, and future generations on down the road! At the end of the conference it talked a lot about leaving a legacy! I want that for my kids! I want them to see Diana and I as an example of how their marriage is supposed to be! My parents were together for 19 years before my Dad died, and I want my marriage with Diana to go above and beyond what theirs was. They fought over the same things Diana and I do now, I want to end that with my legacy!

3. I never had looked at sex, as being a way to show God my Oneness with my wife! I always looked at it as a way of us pleasing each other, not as a way of pleasing God too! I thought that was an awesome example. These are things that I have never in my life even heard of!

4. RESOLVING CONFLICT! I learned a lot about how Diana and I would both like to be able to resolve conflict now, and in the future! That is probably the single most important thing that had to change out of this weekend. Both of us grew up in different family backgrounds and both of did not really have the greatest examples in our life on how to resolve conflict, so some of these exercises will really end up being very valuable to our marriage and to our family!

5. Realizing our Roles. Diana and I have heard Ephesians 5 many, many times! It has seemed like a broken record! I remember the first time we heard it together, she was like submit....HA!! I was like, I do love her like Christ loves the Church. Little did we know that we were far from it! This weekend, during our get away sessions we used some of our time to discuss this verse, and how it reflected upon us, and what would happen if we both did more to "step up" into these roles! Me as the leader (which quite frankly, I have been slacking in) and her as the "helper". I think this conversation has made us both see, that 1 we are willing to do what it is that is God's intentional will for us, and 2 that we care enough about each other that we are willing to to exactly what it takes to be committed to each other, and to God at the same time!

Most of all, above everything else I want to thank Jesus Christ for sacrificing himself on the cross for my sins. Without His grace none of this would have been possible! He truly is worthy of all our love! I can not love my wife without Him, because without Him there is no such thing as love! God is love!

This conference, and Elevation Church have been such a Godsend to us, to our family, to this community! It has truly been an abundant blessing from God. We couldn't be happier with how things are moving along, and we are continually looking forward to what new and exciting things that God will be doing in and through this church and community!

I would encourage you that no matter how strong your marriage is or isn't.... this conference will help you in many areas and I highly recommend it!

Thanks again, Warren and Mary!!

My father, and My Father

Tomorrow, May 11th, would have been my Dad's 60th birthday. Sadly he died 12/07/1991 at the very young age of 40.

I have so many awesome memories of my Dad. I will take a few minutes to name a few.

1. No matter where, when, who, what, or why. My Dad could put a smile on anybodys face. (As seen in the picture to the left)

2. I remember one time, it was snowing really bad outside, and my Dad had two brown paper bags FULL of groceries, and my cousin Randy threw a snowball at him and it hit him right smack dab in the middle of his big belly and in the middle of the front yard his pants fell down around his ankles! LOL

3. When I was 12 we went to Disney on vacation. He was scared to ride Space Mountain, and so was I. Neither of us like heights. Although, now I love roller coasters.

4. I remember going to Taco Bell on time by the Dayton Mall with Mike Simmons, my friend Larry, and my Dad. It was the absolute WORST food EVER!!!! Mike and I still to this day refer to that place as the kitty litter Taco Bell.

5. This is my favorite. I got my driving permit on his birthday in 1990. We lived like 4 blocks from the High School. He let me drive to the High School. I turned into the school parking lot nearly missing a tree, he told me to put it in park, and get out. His next words "your mother is going to teach you how to drive". LOL

So many great memories. If I wanted to list them all I would be here for awhile.

Most of all I miss getting to spend time with him!

That brings me to the reason I am writing this blog tonight. Yea part of it was to commemorate my Dad, but it is also to express how important it is to spend time with my heavenly Father.

My Dad died when I was 17 years old. I was in the middle of my Senior year at Wilmington High School, and it totally devastated me. At first I was just in shock. I mean, I am not even sure it really sank in for a couple of months. Then after a few months went by, I started rebelling in a BIG WAY!!! I was rebellious to my Mother, my Youth Pastor, Elders in my church and worst of all to God!!

After he died I started down a path that was just a downward spiral for me for many, many years! I did some pretty awful things, things I am still not proud of to this day! I totally blamed God for everything! By everything, I mean things like, my Dad's death, the crud I was into in my life, the way people were treating me, pretty much everything that you could think of. If it was in my life and it wasn't what I thought it was supposed to be I BLAMED GOD!

Here is the thing not everyone knows about God. Even if you are blaming Him, even if you are rejecting him 1000 times over, even if you HATE His guts. He is by your side, He loves you, He accepts you...... JUST THE WAY YOU ARE!

For 10+ years that was my attitude towards God. One day He grabbed me by my heart and said "Listen, you have tried this on your own for a very long time, and look where you are. How about letting me lead you from now on" (paraphrasing), but that is basically what it felt like!

So for 10+ years I was upset that I didn't have a father, but I did have a Father. Funny thing is and I honestly hadn't even seen this until a few weeks ago. God protected me every single day EVEN when I wasn't worshipping Him, reading my Bible, or even attempting to confess Him. He had His protective hands all around me.

After knowing all that I know now about how God has been there for me, it makes me wish I could turn back time and be there for Him more. In serving, worshipping, witnessing, loving, and many many other ways.

God is so good!! So as I celebrate my Dad's 20th year with God, and remember his birthday today! I am also celebrating my time I get to spend serving my Father, loving my Father, and worshipping my Father!

I hope this blog blesses you as much as it blessed me by writing it. Sometime writing these is more of a release of emotion, and love than it is anything else!

God Bless, and thank you for your support!

Catalyst/Small Group

Tonight was the beginning of an awesome group! Diana and I had so much fun tonight. Got to know a little bit about everyone there, Austin got involved. Julie has a new BFFL (Whatever that means).

It felt so amazing to have this new beginning that Diana and I have so longed for. If you have not joined a Small Group, come check us out next week. You do not know what you are missing until you come check it out!

Great job leading tonight Phil! A special thanks to the Kings (Joel & Rebecca) for hosting the group as well.

I can tell already that this is going to be a fun and entertaining group as we all get more comfortable with each other.

Afterwards, Diana and I were discussing how much Elevation has the right things going in the right direction. We are so pleased to be a part of the growth of this church in our own community and we are both eagerly anticipating serving in more areas! Come check out the group, SERIOUSLY you will not regret it!

CPR

CardioPulmonary Resuscitation

Used alone, CPR will result in few complete recoveries, and those who do survive often develop serious complications. Estimates vary, but many organizations stress that CPR does not "bring anyone back," it simply preserves the body for defibrillation and advanced life support.

Just about anyone who is in the business of "saving" lives, policemen, emt's, firefighter's, doctor's, nurses, and many other professionals need to know CPR. It is a mainstay in many fields of a way to preserve someones life until they can get treatment at a medical facility.

I want to talk more about a different type of CPR. Christ's Perfect Redemption. This CPR was developed for one purpose and that was to save the lives of everyone it touches. It is given to those who accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, and to those who believe that Jesus died for their sins. It is a beautiful redemption.

The thing is there are people who are all around us that are dying! People who are laying lifeless on the sidewalk of their own lives. People who are empty inside, and searching for something to fill that void, whether it be a needle, or a bottle, or a woman/man. People who just want to feel loved. People who are hungry, not for food, but for spiritual sustance and may not know how to get or even what it really is until it is on the tablein front of them. People who are crying out to you, your spouse, your sibling, your parents, or your, co-workers. People who are in your circle of friends whom need Jesus and may never have had the chance to experience what He truly is, which is the God of Love, Peace, Compassion, Forgiveness, Joy, Redemption and so, so much more.

One of the greatest things you can do for someone you love is give them the chance to have this version of CPR!