Life – Page 7 – Thoughts from a Crosseyed Jesus Freak

“It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” (Dec. ’16 Newsletter)

“It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” or so the beloved Christmas song goes. And for many that is a very true statement. I love this time of year, although, I am still having to get used to the summer like temperatures (at least for this TN guy) around the holidays. It is hard to believe that this will be Kelley and I’s third Christmas season here in NM, but it is.

While I say that I love this time of year, and I do agree with the song I quoted above, I also realize that this is not always the most wonderful time of the year for many. For those that do not have family to spend time with, or that have family too far away to get to spend time with, it can be a depressing time of year as well. Believe me, I get that so much, because as much as I love this time of year, it is hard knowing that Kelley and I will not be spending it with our families either in OH or TN.

Then there are those that just recently lost a loved one. Holidays are really tough in those situations. In fact, I was reminded of that talking to Kell’s mom on Thanksgiving Day. Her father passed away in December of 2014, and Kell’s mom was telling us that she spent almost two hours on the phone with her mom on Thanksgiving Day, because the holiday season is still tough on her not having her husband.

Another reminder of how tough this season can be sometimes is going on right now as I type these words. I am not sure how many of you are following what is going on in my home state, but Gatlinburg, TN and surrounding areas have been severely damaged by some out of control forest fires. In fact, just a couple of nights ago, Gatlinburg residents faced a mandatory evacuation, while hundreds of homes, cabins, and business were burned to the ground. My family is all safe (they live about an hour and a half from Gatlinburg), but there are thousands that have lost everything, right before Christmas. The town is a home away from home for so many that I know from East TN and OH as well. I have spent many weekends in the Gatlinburg area in my youth as well. To say the situation is devastating is an understatement.

I write all of the above for one simple reason. While I love this time of year, it is a hard time of year for many. We are reminded of family members that are gone now, and miss the family members and friends that we are not able to spend time with during the holidays.

Whether this is “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” for you, or it is a difficult reminder of those that are either gone too soon or too far away to spend time with, I want to remind you of one simple truth that we should all hold on to: This is the time of year that we set aside to celebrate the coming of the greatest gift this world has ever seen, and that is the birth of Jesus Christ!

While this is probably not the real date of His birth, this is when we choose to celebrate and remember that Jesus sat aside His glory and divinity in Heaven, and chose to become human. John records this in a beautiful way in John 1:14; “14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Whether you are hurting or celebrating during this season, hold on to the fact that Jesus came, and He came for you and me!

Christian Living, Encouragement, God, Life, Ministry, Newspaper

Do You Trust God? (11-19)

Thanksgiving is upon us. Where has this year gone? It simply amazes me that we are just over a month away from ending the 2016 calendar year. As we get into the Thanksgiving holiday, we are all reminded to take a step back and reflect on what we have to be thankful for. And we have so much, even if life is not going exactly the way that we thought it would this year.

This has not been the most straight-forward of years for me. There have been things that have happened along the way that I did not see coming. Such is life, though. It started off with my mom falling and shattering her shoulder in three places. On top of that, she lives in East Tennessee, so I was not even able to be there to help her.

My wife was working for a family here in town, and really enjoying her job. The family, however, ended up moving out of state due to a job promotion, and due to some other unforeseen circumstances, she has not been able to find another job yet.

Most recently, my wife’s grandmother was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of cancer, and passed away so quickly that we were not able to make it to Ohio until two weeks after she passed away. That does not even start to cover things not going the way we thought in regards to friends and church members that we know.

I am sure you can relate, because life usually does not go the way we think it should or the way we want it to. It just does not work that way. So, what do we have to be thankful for? For me, I have a job that I love, a family that loves me, good friends, and most importantly, Jesus who went to the cross to die for me, even when I did not (and still do not) deserve it. He went there for you as well! That should be the best news you have ever received in your life, and something that you can be thankful for, even in the hard times of life.

There is a story found in Acts 16:1-10 that I believe can show us what can happen when we trust God and are thankful for Him, even when life does not go as planned. I will let you read it on your own if you want, but basically it is a story about a man named Paul. Paul is going around, preaching about Jesus, and desperately wants to go preach the gospel in the province of Asia. He is laser focused on the idea of going to Asia to preach, yet every time he tries, the story says that he is prevented by the Holy Spirit.

If you read about Paul, one of the things you will see is that once he sets his mind to something, he is going to do everything he can to get it done. When he is prevented from doing something he feels strongly about, he does not take it very well. This would be the case with being prevented from entering Asia as well. But Paul trusts God, and is thankful for His guidance.

How do I know that he trusts God? Paul is able to sleep that night, right after being prevented again from going to Asia. In his sleep, he has a dream that basically calls Paul and his companions to go to Macedonia instead of Asia to preach. And that is exactly what he does.

It was not where he saw his life going, but he did not lose sleep over it either. He trusted God, and was grateful for God’s guidance in his life. So what about you? Does anything keep you up at night, or are you able to trust God and be thankful, even when life is not what you think it should be?

Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak

Christian Living, Encouragement, God, Life, Newspaper

Legacy (11-5-16)

Legacy. I have been thinking about that term a lot recently. We all have a legacy of some kind that is passed along through our families, or those that we spend the most amount of time with. In a lot of ways, we get to help build those legacies and pass them along to the generations that are going to follow us as well. Just in case you are not with me on the term legacy, Merriam-Webster.com defines legacy as “something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past”. There are other definitions as well, but this is the one that I have been thinking long and hard about.

Why? I am a first generation preacher on my side of the family. As far as I know, I am the first person to make preaching my career path in my family. My family, however, has a long legacy of being Christ-followers. More than that has me thinking about legacy though. My wife’s grandmother just passed away a few weeks ago. Last week, we were finally able to travel to Ohio to spend time with her family, and a lot of memories were shared. It was a very quick trip, but well worth it.

While we were there, we got to talking about the fact that my wife’s dad, brother, and I have all preached from the same stage at their church in Georgetown, OH. I new that, but being there and seeing it again, it was a great reminder. I love that we have all had the opportunity to preach God’s word from that stage. I was sharing that with my mother-in-law, and that is when the real idea of legacy hit me. Their side of the family has a lot of preachers. I already knew that, but she told me that they had been counting. Including me marrying into the family, and my brother-in-law who is currently in Bible College, we have 20 active preachers in the family.

I was blown away by that number. That is crazy, but that is awesome. And my wife’s grandmother is a huge part of that legacy. Her and her husband helped start a church early in their lives, in their living room. That church today has thousands of people that attend weekend services. While I have a legacy of being faithful to Jesus in my side of the family, I married into a legacy of preachers and missionaries as well!

But that is not where I want it to end. I want to live my life in such a way that I can help build that legacy and pass it to the next generation. Not to make a name for me, but to exalt the name of Jesus Christ throughout this world. And I have a challenge for you as well. Find your legacy. If you find that you have a legacy that you want to change, do so.

Hebrews 12:1-3 states, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

You see, we have a legacy of those that went before us. They set the example of how to live as a Christ follower. But we also have Jesus himself. This passage also tells us how to continue that legacy so that we can pass it along to those that follow us. And when the world makes us lose our focus, just remember, “let us fix our eyes on Jesus”. What legacy do you want to pass along to the next generation?

Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak

Christian Living, Encouragement, God, Life

How Much Time Do You Have?

It seems that every time we turn around anymore, there is more news of tragedy. Whether it be a school shooting, bad storm or flooding, a fire, an accident resulting in an untimely death, illness, or anything else you can think of. Life is not something that we should be taking for granted.

I was reminded of this even more over the weekend. As an avid sports fan, I try to stay up on all the major sports news happening across our country, and in some sports even all around the world. There are so many ways to do this, and getting sports news updated on my phone is one of the ways that I stay up to date with what is happening in the athletic world.

Baseball is one of the sports that I like to follow, and have been a fan of the Atlanta Braves for as long as I can remember. Over the weekend, tragedy struck in the MLB. A pitcher for the Miami Marlins, Jose Fernandez, who was only 24 years old, was killed in a boating accident Sunday morning. The Marlins just happened to be playing the Braves over the weekend, and because of the accident, the game on Sunday afternoon was rightfully cancelled.

Over the last few days since his passing, the MLB and specific teams have been paying tribute to Fernandez, and mourning his loss. Unexpected death is always something that is hard to understand and to deal with. My thoughts and my prayers go out to his family and loved ones that are grieving over his death.

The situation happening in Miami, while tragic, has got me thinking. I saw a quote somewhere this week, and honestly cannot remember where, but I want to share it with you. It said something along the lines of “you are only one breath from eternity at any given moment”. It is so true. None of us knows what is going to happen later today, tomorrow, or next week. We never know how much time we have left on this earth.

In Philippians 2:9-11, Paul writes, “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” In other words, one way or the other, everyone is going to acknowledge Jesus as Lord. You never know how much time you have left. Have you acknowledged Jesus as Lord of your life and are trying to live for Him? If not, you might want to give it some serious thought. “You’re only one breath from eternity at any given moment”, and you want to make the acknowledgement of who Jesus is before you get to eternity. If you have questions, I would love to talk with you.

Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak

Christian Living, Encouragement, God, Life

I Despise Politics

If you know me at all, you know that I despise politics, in any form or fashion. I rarely if ever engage in political talk with anyone, especially people that I do not know well. Political arguments have been known to destroy good friendships, as well as turn into knock-down, drag out fights. It just seems like nothing good ever comes from talking politics, yet all you see in our society at the present time is political ads, debates, arguments, and more…everywhere.

I guess that is natural with the presidential election coming up in just over a month, but I have to admit, this is my least favorite time of the year, news wise, because all you see or hear is politically charged.

Well, like I said, I despise politics, but I am going to break for and write about the election coming up in just over a month. Before you get too far ahead of me, I will not be “endorsing” anyone. In fact, I really do not think that we have any good choice this year when it comes to the candidates for president, and I will not even name a single candidate by name. You know who they are anyway.

What I want to write to you this month is about all the doom and gloom that seems to be present on both sides of the election process. Democrats are talking about how horrible it would be if the Republican candidate were to be elected. Republicans are talking just as much about how horrible it would be if the Democrat candidate were to be elected. Both are completely ignoring any third party candidates that have gotten into the race.

Here is the problem as I see it. I see just as many Christians talking about how horrible it would be if one or the other were to win the election. The problem with that is it seems that they are putting all of their hope in a political party, instead of trusting in the only One that we can truly have hope in; Jesus Christ.

This world seems to be in a bad place. But I have news for you. A republican is not going to fix things. A democrat is not going to fix things. Only Jesus Christ, and people fully committed to following Him are going to fix the problems of the world. I am not trying to tell you not to be involved in the election. By all means, vote, but do not hang your hope in a political party. In fact, scripture tells us that our hope is not on anything in this world.

Paul writes in Philippians 3:19-21; “19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”

Our hope is in heaven. Jesus is the only hope this world has. Never lose sight of that. A fellow minister that I went to school with sent this out today on Twitter. Ben Stroup wrote, “God isn’t desperate to ‘MAGA’ (Make America Great Again) nor is He ‘With her.’ The kingdom is about way more than one election in one country. Relax”.

Christian Living, God, Life, Ministry

The Church’s Job

We are beginning a sermon series all about discipleship on September 11. This is a series that I am really excited about, and one that I think can help us all in how we interact with each other and those that do not have a relationship with Jesus yet. In fact, I think we all need a reminder of this from time to time, the first part of discipleship is actually sharing your faith with someone.

When we hear discipleship, our first thought is usually something about gaining deeper understanding of scripture, a better prayer life, or something along those lines. Those things are definitely a part of discipleship, and something that we should all be striving for. But we are called to make disciples. Not just help each other that are already in a relationship with Jesus be a better disciple. This is something that I am just now really starting to understand, and something that I think has the potential to change how we interact with other people that we come into contact with in the world.

Think about it. Matthew 28:18-20 states, “18 Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’” We talk about this passage all the time. You know what it is usually referred to. “The Great Commission”. It is Jesus’ final command to His disciples (and us) after His resurrection before His return to Heaven.

All to often, however, I have missed the command here. We talk about “going” and “baptizing” and many other things in this passage. Or we focus on the promise at the end that Jesus will be with us always. And that is a great promise. One that we should talk about and should give us the courage to live for Him in this broken world.

We seem to miss the “make disciples” part of this though. I know I have missed it many times. But that is the central command here. Go and make disciples. Not wait for them to come to us, not just help each other grow that already know Jesus, but go and make new disciples. That can get messy though, because we are dealing with imperfect people that carry baggage of hurts and failures with them, along with our own baggage as well. It does not give us a pass, however, from not attempting to follow this command.

I saw a friend post this quote from John Ortberg earlier today, and it kind of brought all of this into perspective for me. Ortberg wrote, “The mission of the church is not to go out into the world of disgust and shape it up. It’s to go into the world with compassion and help it out.” In other words, God has extended you grace, even when you did not deserve it, and His grace is available to others that are still mixed up in the world of disgust out there. Our job is to help them find Jesus, not condemn the world for acting immoral.

Paul put it this way in his writing to the church in Corinth; “12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. ‘Expel the wicked person from among you.’” (I Cor. 5:12-13). Our job is not to judge and look down at those outside the church. It is to try to find a way to help them become a disciple, and that is what our 4-week series starting on September 11 is going to deal with! I cannot wait. Please invite your friends, family, coworkers, neighbors…anyone who does not have a relationship with Jesus yet. Who knows, they might say yes.

Christian Living, Encouragement, Life

Heart Surgery, ALS, and a 12-Year Old’s Birthday Request

For my last newspaper article, I wrote about the idea of encouragement. You can read that article here. It is no secret that there are many many things in this world that can get us down, and it is also not a secret that if we do not look for the good in things, then most of the time the negative is going to win out. It is just the nature of the way things are. I wish it was easier to find encouragement, but you know as well as I do that it is not easy at all. You can have multiple people telling you what a good job you have done on something, and that one critical person pops up. Then all the positive things go right out the window, and we focus on the negative. For some reason, it seems that it is human nature to care more about what someone is criticizing us over than to remember all the positive reinforcements we might get.

Over the last few days, after writing about one of the ways that I look for encouragement (notecards that others have written to me over the years), I have come across a couple of really encouraging stories, both of which have continued to help me see that there is good still in this world. We just have to look for it. Let me share these stories with you.

I want to write about the most recent one first. We have a couple in our church here in New Mexico that for the last few months were not really sure what the future would hold for them. They are in their late 70’s or early 80’s, and he was going to have to have a stint put in one of his arteries last October. When the doctors attempted the stint, they were unable to complete the procedure, and he was then scheduled for a single bypass to fix the blockage in his artery. The concern was his age and the fact that he had had a bypass 10-years before, so the surgery was somewhat of a risk.

The surgery went better than expected, and he was then expected to make a full recovery without complication. That is until he ended up with a very serious infection in his digestive system. Months and months of antibiotics and a couple of other procedures took place, and we were all praying and hoping that he would pull through. He did, and has been back faithfully at church the last few months, saying he has not felt this good in a long time (Praise God!). That is encouraging in and of itself.

This past Sunday, however, this couple came into the church carrying a couple of good size boxes, and he stopped me and asked that I make an announcement that no-one leave without seeing them after the service. It is not unusual for them to do something like this, as they bring candy for everyone on a few different holidays throughout the year, so I did not think much about it, even forgetting that on the monthly newsletter I had recently published I had noted that Sunday was his birthday.

Well come to find out, the box contained a variety of very large, and delicious pieces of birthday cake. They had brought cake to give out to everyone because it was his birthday. Isn’t it usually the other way around? People give you things for your birthday, not you giving others gifts because it is your birthday! Here is the encouraging part, however, and it almost brought good tears to my eyes that morning (and now as I relive the moment). Tearfully, with a catch in his throat, he stated that over the last year, this birthday that he was celebrating was many times doubtful, but that it was through the encouragement, prayers, and support of our faith family that he was still here to celebrate it with us! Yes, the doctors faithfully and successfully treated him, but he also was giving glory to our God for bringing him through the last year.

Now, for the second story. There is a man in East Tennessee that I have had the pleasure of meeting and hearing speak on a couple of different occasions before moving to New Mexico. His name is Josh Wandell, and a few years back he was diagnosed with ALS. At the time, Wandell was the principal of a local elementary school, and a very active person. He has been using his battle with ALS to bring awareness to the disease, but more than that, he has been traveling to local churches, speaking about how he may be losing control of his muscles, but the battle of this disease is strengthening his faith in God. Wendell is a role model for anyone that is facing struggles in their own lives (which is all of us).

He has since had to retire from working, as he just physically cannot do the job anymore, but that has not stopped his influence. Wandell’s story is encouraging enough, however, seeing how his influence has spread is what I want to tell you about today. There is a page on Facebook called Team Wandell. Find it here or their website here. Over the weekend, the Team Wandell page relayed a story that completely blew me away. There was a student turning 12-years old. In lieu of presents for his birthday party, this young made made a simple request. Make donations to “Team Wandell”. How incredible is that? A 12 year old wanting do help someone else out through donations instead of receiving birthday presents for himself. It just blows me away, puts a huge smile on my face, and warms my heart.

May we all find encouragement in this world. There are good things taking place everywhere, we just have to look for them.

Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak

Christian Living, God, Life, Ministry

Family Calling

I grew up as an only child, so when my wife and I got married, I not only gained a spouse, but I gained a brother that I had never had before. Kelley has a brother that is a few years younger than her, and he became my brother.

The family I grew up in is very faithful in being Christ followers, but when I answered God’s call after high school to go into ministry, I am pretty sure I was the first in my family to do so. I might be wrong, because I do not really know our family’s history past my grandparents on each side, for the most part. I did not really have a legacy of ministers in my family line, although I never even thought about that because it did not seem strange to me.

Then Kelley and I got married. Her dad, Kevin, is in ministry, and multiple grandparents, uncles, and cousins on both sides of her family are as well. I gained a legacy of ministry when our families joined together through our marriage. The incredible thing to me is that her younger brother is now studying to go into ministry as well. In other words, I now have a younger brother answering the call from God to go into the ministry.

While I was in school for ministry, I did an internship at Kelley’s home church in Georgetown, OH. That is actually how we met, as she was finishing her time in the youth group while I was there, and we started dating when my internship officialy ended that summer. While I was there as a student ministry intern, working with the teens mostly, I was given the opportunity to preach in the main adult worship service near the end of my time there. That was the first time I preached in front of a group of more than 100 people, and I got to do it twice, as there are two services every Sunday. It is an experience that I will never forget. It is also from this stage that Kelley and I got married as well. The stage at Georgetown Church of Christ has been a pretty special place in my life.

As I was stating earlier, Korey (Kelley’s brother) is currently working on his ministry degree at Johnson University. A few months ago, he had the opportunity to preach at Georgetown as well, as part of the requirements for a preaching class he was taking. Kelley and I were unfortunately unable to attend, as we live in New Mexico, but the church uploads the sermons every week, so we were both able to watch Korey preach. Sidenote, I love technology! While I was watching him preach, I was struck with an incredible thought. I have had the honor and privilege to share the same stage or pulpit with not only Kevin (Kelley’s dad), who is the preaching minister in Georgetown, but now with my brother as well. That is a very cool realization to make, and it is also very humbling. (I have also gotten to preach from the same stage as some of my biggest mentors in ministry as well, which is pretty awesome as well).

What got me thinking of all of this again is that Korey just preached at Georgetown again this past weekend, and again, I was able to listen to his sermon thanks to technology. I found out the morning of that he was going to be preaching, and immediately posted something about it on Twitter, offering a prayer of encouragement to Korey, and ended the tweet with the #FamilyCalling. When I got to listen to his sermon today (Monday), I was so proud of the growth that he is having in his communication skills, and the fact that he is so willing to use his talents for God. It again got me thinking about the idea of a family calling. I got to marry into a family that has many that have answered the call to ministry.

It is truly a calling as well. I do not believe that you can be successful in ministry if you make the decision on your own that you want to do it. As I listened to his sermon today, I was struck by the theme of his message, because it is something that I have been trying to stress in my own ministry as well. It is the idea that as Christ followers, we have work to do. We have a calling. Our faith in Jesus should lead us to put in some major hard work and dedication for Him.

I will not give away too much of what he had to say, because I am going to provide a link at the end of this for you to go check his message out yourself, but he was preaching on Ephesians 2. It is a very beautiful and powerful passage from Paul, and Korey nailed the idea from my favorite part of the passage, Ephesians 2:10. It states, “¹⁰For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”(NIV)

Other translations use the word masterpiece instead of handiwork. We are God’s masterpiece! And the fact that we are His masterpiece means that we were created for a specific purpose. We have a job to do; bringing glory to God. God has this work in mind for every single one of us. I mentioned earlier that those of us in ministry have “answered a calling”, that you cannot really be successful in ministry if you have not been called. What I did not mention then, I want to stress now. While you may not have been called to be in vocational ministry, if you are a Christ follower, you are called into some kind of ministry. It could be anything that you do to bring glory to your Creator, who created you as His masterpiece.

Korey made a statement in the middle of his sermon that was so dead on I just sat here in my office shaking my head in agreement. In fact, I have made very similar statements multiple times to my faith family here in New Mexico. He said, “Everywhere you go should be your mission field.” Think about that. You should be sharing Jesus and His love everywhere you go. Here is how I have tried to stress that idea here; I had signs made that are now hanging beside every exit door we have in our church building. They simply read, “You are now entering your mission field” and then quote Matthew 28:19-20, which reads, “‘¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'”

In other words, we all have a family calling if we are in the family of God. If you claim to be a Christ follower, answer your calling, and get busy in your mission field. It could be in your own back yard, or it could be half way around the world. Where it is does not really matter. What matters is that none of us sit idly by and expect someone else to do it for us. Let us all answer our “family calling”!

Click here to listen to Korey’s message on Vimeo.

Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak

Life, Ministry

Expect More to Come!

I have presented the idea a lot over the last few years that I am an aspiring writer. It is something that I really like doing, but I also have not been very faithful in putting out articles unless I have a hard deadline. In other words, I have not been very productive as a writer, even though it is something that I am passionate about, and something that I want to get better at. There are a couple of different reasons for that. One is just time constraints. Preparing a sermon on a weekly basis takes a lot of time and effort, and other writing opportunities sometimes just get pushed to the side. Another is that I sometimes just have a hard time coming up with a topic that I really want to spend the time writing about. But more than anything, I just have not had the dedication to carving time out of my schedule to dedicate to writing.

I am attempting to change that. Scheduling has never been a strong suit of mine. Planning out my work week has always been something that I have generally just done as things come up, instead of setting aside specific times to do specific tasks. Goals of getting things done each week are always there, but I would not have a specific plan or roadmap of how to get there. It has worked for me, but I also have discovered that it is not the most efficient way to do things. I do not think that I will ever get to the point where I plan out my entire day, minute by minute, by any means, but I am starting to try to be a little more intentional in how I plan my weeks.

This leads me back to the idea that I have not dedicated time to write into my schedule in the past. I plan on changing that. In fact, in my attempt to plan out my week in a more intentional way, I have started trying to utilize my calendar apps on my computer, phone, and tablet. That means I have scheduled times (that can always be altered if ministry tasks dictate) into my calendar on a weekly basis for sermon prep, personal Bible Study and personal development (both physical and spiritual), as well as dedicated time to write articles, either for my personal blog, the Current-Argus newspaper in town here, or Central Christian’s monthly newsletter.

What this means for my writing is that I am going to attempt to post a minimum of three articles on my Crosseyed Jesus Freak page weekly, in addition to any newspaper or newsletter articles that I write. This is just starting this week, so we will see how it goes, but I really want to start putting time and effort into continuing to develop my writing style and skills. I want to be very intentional about this as well. Any of you that know ministry, know that things will inevitably come up from time to time that will interrupt this schedule, so for that, I am asking for your understanding. If you do not see an article from me for a few days, however, please feel free to reach out to me and ask if there is something keeping me from writing, or if I have just not been following through on my attempt to write.

I would appreciate any feedback you have for me, as well. Please feel free to share anything I write and publish on my blog page as well, as I would love to see God’s name being spread further through my writing.

Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak

Christian Living, Life, Newspaper

Well That’s Encouraging! (Newspaper 8-6-16)

This world is full of frustration, disappointment, anger, sadness, and a long list of other words that just get us down. You know that just by looking at everything taking place. And if you let it, it’s easy to just get beaten down by everything negative. Sometimes it just seems so impossible to find anything positive going on around us, and it just drags us down even more. It’s so important to look for the positive things taking place, even if it means that we have to look even harder. Finding something that we can turn to when we are discouraged is vital.

I bought something for my office this week. It is a simple bulletin board, and I have hung it directly over my desk, where my computer sits, that way I see it just about all day long. There were a few different reasons that I got the board, and hung it where I did, but the most important reason is what I already have hanging on it. Over my years in ministry, especially working with teenagers, I have been given encouraging note cards from time to time. Some people would not hold on to things like that, especially since one of them just says “You are amazing”. No name or any other identifying mark on it. But if I have received a card from you in the past, I have tried to keep it. In fact, it has more than likely been laminated so it does not get destroyed accidentally, and it is now hanging on the bulletin board over my desk. I will see them everyday, and that it very much strategic on my part.

It is easy to forget why you are doing what you are doing, and it is no different in ministry. There are days that everything else going on, and even “failures” on your end, get you so discouraged. That is what those notecards are for for me. They remind me of why I do what I do. I have a chance to make a difference in someone’s life, and these cards remind me that I have done so, even in some small way, in the past. They are notes of encouragement that I can look to when I need to be reminded that no matter how hard life gets, there is hope.

We all need encouragement in our lives. Did you know that being an encourager of others is actually listed by Paul as one of the gifts that Christians can be given? In Romans 12:6-8, Paul writes, “6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.” (bold added for emphasis is mine). Find someone that can encourage you. Other than the notecards that I wrote about above, I have a select number of people that I turn to when I need encouragement. We all need that. I try to be an encourager as well, but it comes naturally to some people.

In fact, Paul was joined on some of his missionary journeys by an encourager. Is that something you knew? I know many do not realize this, but a man named Barnabas accompanied Paul for a time. Barnabas’ name means “son of encouragement”. His name literally means that he is an encourager. If Paul, a man that wrote a majority of the New Testament, and saw God’s works up close and personal needed a friend that was an encourager, then I think it is safe to say that we all do. Find someone that can be an encouragement to you today. Do not continue to just see all the negative things in this world. Find encouragement, and try to encourage someone else that needs it as well!