Powerful Reminder Today…
I just walked in the door from FUSION and my normal routine on any given sunday night is come home, plop down on the couch, converse with my wife Kate about the day while we watch The Amazing Race together. Usually it’s a time where I decompress from my long day and unwind and start to prepare for my upcoming week. But tonight my mind is elsewhere and Kate is watching some movie I could care less about on TV so I decided I would pull out my laptop and blog about some of the things I’m currently processing.
Tonight was a great night. It was our Parent night at FUSION which was incredible. We had one of our largest turn outs yet and it was great to meet with parents one on one and hear about their students and how we can team up with them as we walk alongside of their sons and daughters this year in our small groups. There were many stories and many laughs as we shared stories and insights into the lives of their students.
I believe a reason that made tonight so enjoyable is because of the awesome staff we have. Granted, being on that staff I am biased, but I truly love what I do and who I work alongside of. Mark and Jen are not just great co-workers but they are also people who I love dearly and challenge me to be more like Christ on a daily basis.
As I got into my car tonight after FUSION, my phone buzzed signaling a new email message. I took it out and noticed it was an email from a good friend, a fantastic volunteer, and a lover of Jesus who is battling cancer and has had a hard week with discouraging news being revealed about her diagnosis. However her love for Jesus and the hope she has in HIM overshadows the fears of the unknown. I was struck by this statement in her email:
“I have been thinking these last few days about Heb. 12:1-4, especially the part of the verse that says, “the race marked out of us.” Each of us has a race that looks different; some long, some short, some with more obstacles, some smoother… Our race is individual, no race is identical. But each is a test to see what we are made of and how we will glorify or deny God along the way.”
wow…
I sat in my car and read that over and over and over again reflecting on what I just read. Only hours earlier I was talking to parents about how we want to see their kids run the race and make it their own. To take their faith and fuse it with their day to day life. I had been so focused on the students taking ownership of their faith and running that race with fervor, that I momentarily forgot that this is something just as important for me to do as well.
In a few weeks I will be teaching in the Jr. High about what it means to “Worship Fully”.
Do you worship fully?
Are running the race wholeheartedly?
Am I?
Am I running that race that Christ has set out before me in such a way that I can say that I am giving it my all? I can’t expect the students to do this if I am not doing it myself…let alone teach on it. As I prepare for this lesson, I thank God for these moments where He captivates my heart when I would least expect him to. Such a range of emotions today, but thankful for God letting me experience each and everyone of them.
I’m thinking about showing this video when I teach in November. Thought it was a fitting way to end this post.
Running the Race Fully,
Pastor Tyler
Certain Amid Uncertainty
I guess I have been in a place of uncertainty for a while. I guess that this is also why I have not blogged in so long. What do I say? What do I share? But, I have to be honest: life is uncertain right now. I love to be in control, I love to have a good plan and see it happen. Just to make things clear I am not good with the “I do not knows” and the “Let’s just wing it” approach. My family has a name for it “control freak.” I come from a long line of them. It is almost hereditary:)
But, I can’t be shy about it anymore; I am not in control these days. I do not have life figured out, and I do not know what the future holds. I am sure many people can resonate with me. This economy has turned things upside down, and where we envisioned our life going is not always what happens.
So in the midst of the uncertainty, where do I go? How do I forge ahead?
Last week I meet with two of the girls I am discipling. (Love it!) We are reading through the gospels this fall, and last week we finished up in Matthew. After discussing what they learned, we focused on:
Matthew 22:37 – 38“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.”
Now, this passage has not left me since then. I am really wrestling with it. I have read it so many times, but this time around it is different. I am really trying to figure out what does it mean to love God with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my mind in the midst of uncertainty?
How do I love God so much that my motives (heart) for my future align with His?
How do I love God so much that my inmost being (soul) craves Him more then control?
And how do I love God so much that everything on my mind is laid at His throne so I keep focused on Him (Mind)?
This passage is causing me each day…
To keep asking Him to change my motives to be what He desires: Heart.
To keep asking Him to transform my inmost being into His likeness: Soul.
To keep asking Him to fix my thoughts on things that please Him: Mind.
So what I am certain amid uncertainty is that I have a God that loves me and will never leave. And the greatest commandment cannot be head knowledge it must be my calling.
Jen
Did You Know Life Hurts?
We are smack dab in the middle of a series on Sunday mornings called “Life Hurts, But God Heals”. We all know that pain is part of life. But what is pain? Is it the homework that has to be done every night? Maybe it’s the disagreement that you had with your best friend. Or, maybe it’s the sudden death of a close relative that hits you when you least expected it too.
I have heard about painful experiences from friends who have lost jobs and have debilitating diseases and family fights and more. I don’t want to hear about anymore pain. I want to block it out of my mind. Yea, denial is the ticket. Deny that any pain is real and it just goes away, free from any impact on my life. Unfortunately, that doesn’t deal with the pain, it just pushes back the time when I will have to face it.
So much of the pain in my life is from my selfishness and my being prone to sin. I can’t blame it on the economy or not getting the latest immunization. So dealing with it is also quite unique. To deal with my junk, I need to learn how to confess and give it up to God. In the last few weeks I have participated with groups that were doing a moral inventory of life choices that were sinful or selfish or morally wrong. Doing this once was difficult. Twice was uncomfortable. But three times was really challenging. I don’t like dredging this stuff up, over and over. I mean, it’s been dealt with. God forgave me. I confessed them. I agree that they are wrong and not for me to hold onto.
So why do I drift back into them? Why am I prone to certain sins? I believe that these kinds of sins can become spiritual strongholds. I don’t want them to be there, but for me, I am always at risk when these sins present themselves. However, I am aware that a few things help me to avoid those sins. One is when I am discipling someone. I just want to live righteously so they know I’m coming clean with them. Another is when I share openly with a close friend how I’m doing in my walk with Christ. Another is when I’m involved in serving the Lord or being involved in an important ministry event. I don’t want to have anything in my life that might hinder God from using me.
What helps you to avoid sin and live for Christ? What do you find helps you to be on track with godly living? I would love to know what anyone is thinking so reply back and let me know.
I didn’t think I would like this series, but God is showing me that being transparent and vulnerable is good for me and good for all of us. Keep loving Jesus on the journey!
Pastor Mark
New year for Youth Group. . .Moving To Jr High For Me
So, I’ve moved down in the world –
The past five years I have been active with the high school ministry at church which I loved. High schoolers are so real and so raw and so down to earth and I have enjoyed hanging with my two older children’s youth groups and leading a discipleship group and helping organize mission trip fundraisers and mission trips.
I have been involved with youth ministry off and on for 25 y ears. Since I became a believer in high school, I had told God that I would be willing to reach out to youth to help them in that journey and I have had that opportunity these years. Helping college age through Campus Crusade for Christ, helping high school and junior high youth through my youth ministry leadership position just out of college, to other volunteer positions these past years.
One of the things that my husband and I have liked to do is be involved with our children where they are at. And having a large family means divide and conquer, so these past years I have committed to high school ministry and my husband had done the Awanas for our younger children.
Now that our older kids are finished with high school and moving on (I still cannot believe it), I am moving down to the junior high group, http://www.678live.com/ As is my husband. He is still helping with Awana and boy scouts and I have my other areas of ministry, but related to youth group, I sure enjoyed our first week of junior high group. It was an introduction night and since we are on the welcome team, there was not a lot to do for me, so I got out my camera and shot photographs and that now will be one of my roles. Capturing the kids in action with their leaders at Fusion.
My 6th grade twins are so excited to be a part of the youth group at Rolling Hills. They were in a discipleship group last summer and they went to outdoor movie night and bible study and got to know the staff and the kids and they want to grow.
I am loving moving to the junior high school youth group to help there. I love this age. The students are so excited about life and so innocent and so willing to learn and so eager to learn and so willing to try new things and they mostly just try to be a part of something and grow without all the tangles that high school sometimes has. They are willing to have fun and be crazy and just be. They are so eager to take God at His word and I hope and pray they stay that way and I believe God that He can and will protect their hearts and I see the heart of the youth ministry staff and their desire to come alongside families to partner with them, to raise this generation of youth. There has been so much more of an emphasis on discipleship this year at our church and it stems from Pastor Dale Ebel and it is expanding into all of the areas of our church including the youth, which I feel is so vital. Parents need to be discipling their children and it is neat to see the youth group emphasizing this.
The honesty and sweetness of junior high schoolers is exemplifed in an example of one of my twins coming home to tell me what happened at school. He was listening to his teacher talk about evolution and how we were evolved and he said to the girl sitting next to him, I don’t believe that this happened this way. It is only a theory. I believe that God created people and the earth and he asked the girl what she believed and she said she agreed with him.
I love this age. Sweet junior high age.
Cornelia Seigneur (Parent of 6th Grade Students)
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