I wanted to pass along 3 articles that I read recently – great stuff!
Which article was your favorite and why?
This past weekend I stated that while everyone has a physical pulse, not everyone has a relational pulse. I thought I would share some common characteristics of those who have relational pulses:
What would you add to the list?
A parable is told of a farmer who owned an old mule. The mule fell into the farmer’s well. The farmer heard the mule ‘braying’, or whatever mules do when they fall into wells. After carefully assessing the situation, the farmer sympathized with the mule, but decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth the trouble of saving. Instead, he called his neighbors together and told them what had happened and enlisted them to help haul dirt to bury the old mule in the well and put him out of his misery. Initially, the old mule was hysterical! But as the farmer and his neighbors continued shoveling and the dirt hit his back, a thought struck him. It suddenly dawned on him that every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back — he should shake it off and step up! This he did, shovelful after shovelful. ”Shake it off and step up . . . shake it off and step up . . . shake it off and step up!” he repeated to encourage himself. No matter how painful the blows, or distressing the situation seemed the old mule fought “panic” and just kept right on shaking it off and stepping up! It wasn’t long before the old mule, battered and exhausted, stepped triumphantly over the wall of that well! What seemed like it would bury him, had actually blessed him — all because of the manner in which he handled his adversity.
I had the privilege of talking with Adam Whitley today and letting him know how once again the people of Parkview have been incredibly generous. Your offering for the Whitley family this past weekend was just over $2,700! Phenomenal! Praise God for your generosity to people in their time of need. If you missed the video about their little miracle son Sevrin, I will try to get it posted on my blog this week. The Whitley’s are so thankful for your generosity! If you have not been able to give but would like to do so, we will continue collecting money for them through the month of May – who knows what God would have us do!!!
Psalm 16:2 says, “…in Your presence is fullness of joy…”
The question I had after reading that verse was not, “How do I have joy?”. The reason that was not my question is because the verse tells me how to have joy. The question I had was, “How do experience God’s presence?”. So after thinking about it here are a few ways I can experience His presence:
How can you or how are you experiencing God’s presence today?
Happiness is based on what happens – joy is experienced in God’s presence. EnJOY your day!
Just recently our church had the opportunity to serve a lady in our congregation. In my mind, the way we reached out to her was not very big but to her it was huge. She is 81 years old and has been attending our church for a few years. It was very important to her that she express appreciation for the way that Parkview reached out to her in a time of need. So, in order to say thanks, she brought a home cooked meal and fed our whole staff today. In doing so she taught or reminded me of a few good lessons:
I was simply reminded today of the importance of gratitude!
I don’t watch much TV and therefore haven’t had much exposure to all the happenings in Japan. What I have seen has primarily been by way of the internet. It has all taken my breathe away – devastation is an understatement!!!
Todd and Annie Lee are facebook friends of ours and fellow alumnus. They are ministering in Japan and this is what Annie posted on her status update yesterday: i am overwhelmed by the love and support shown by so many of you to our family. thank you for your concern and prayers! there are 3,221 churches in eastern japan and in them are 241,498 Christians. please pray we can be a light to the world during this time.
David Harris is a missionary in Japan. His mother was actually my secretary when I was employed at Trinity Baptist College. David posted this on his blog: We have been receiving calls about churches and individuals who want to donate for quake relief. BIMI has authorized us to oversee this fund. If you are interested, please see the link at bimi.org.
We were in Misawa which is 200 miles north of the main quake area for a missions conference at Faith Baptist Church when the quake hit. Thankfully, we were only inconvenienced with 2 days without electricity, heat, or hot water. The church made sure we had food and water. There is little damage here, but we felt the dozens of earthquakes that followed.
Power was restored to almost the whole area on Sunday except for the military base inn in which we are staying! We had power for church on Sunday. We had a great conclusion to our mission’s conference at Faith BC in Misawa with Pastor Sammy Popwell.
We were to head back to Kobe this morning by bullet train, but found out that they are not running. We are trying to get back down via the west coast of Japan, but learned that trains heading in that area are also out today. We’ll try again tomorrow. The only other option is for us to head to Aomori and then try to fly back home which will cost us over $1000 one way for the three of us. We are praying the trains start back. If so, we can get a night train that goes down the Japan Sea side for about $500 for all of us. Roads are closed and buses are not running.
I am praying for some way to head toward the quake area to see if I might be able to help with relief. If I can get Jenny and Josiah home, that might be an option. Please pray for thousands Thank you for praying for Japan.
Click here to view a video and helpful prayer to help us know how to pray.
Jay Caruso is a great friend and an amazing photographer. A couple months ago he asked if he could “shadow” me for a weekend and shoot some photos of what a pastor’s weekend looks like. A couple weeks ago we connected and Jay worked his magic with the camera (I could use a little “photoshopping”:-)) Click here to check out the result of our time together.
Jay is also leading an incredible service project. Please consider participating!! Click here to get more info.
Everybody has their critics – that is true of you and that is true of me. I read something recently that has caused me a good bit of thinking, I don’t remember where I read it but here is the quote, “Wise people let their critics become their coaches”. Now if you are like me, my first thoughts were about picking apart that quote and disproving it at several levels. After all who wants to think of their critics in a positive light. But the more I have thought about it the more the quote makes sense, at least at the big picture level. Why would you agree or disagree with the quote?
Just a few random things I am thankful for – no particular order
