June 2, 2010
June 2, 2010 by nate
Filed under Pastors' Corner
Too busy not to pray…
It is the title of a great book by Bill Hybels and, more than that, a great reminder for days like today.
First of all, I’d like to say thanks for the financial support that our church body has given to our construction project in Ensenada. We have a group of contractors heading down today (they are passing through LA as I write), and they will be getting things set up and moving in anticipation of the rest of the group showing up Friday night and Saturday. Please continue to support our team through prayer.
Second, I think FIA Sunday is awesome! I love that my church (all of you) team up together to pour ourselves out and serve our community. It was so good to serve with some friends I rarely see. It was so good to hear stories about the ways God blessed through many of your efforts. It was so good to teach my kids about the difference between the church steeple and the church people. It was just good.
Third, have a great day. Lift someone up in speech, or text or facebook or…today.
Nate
May 26, 2010
May 26, 2010 by nate
Filed under Pastors' Corner
Usually, I read first. I have my routine, but this morning for some reason I broke from it a bit. Was it the sleepless night and the questions bouncing around in my head? Was it that the coffee hadn’t done the coffee thing and woken me up just yet? Either way, I decided to write a few things first. It was pretty much one of those “God Help” kind of prayers. The way we pray when we are sorting through life and plans and questions, and it seems overwhelming. Those prayers one prays when standing at the crossroads of wanting to choose the path of vision and diligence, but the highway of carelessness beckons. Once a few lines were down, I read…
“Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.” Proverbs 19:21
Does that ever happen to you? I hope so! It was as if I was gasping for air and finally able to take a long clear breath. Ahhhh… So I finished writing. This time it wasn’t so much about ‘God helping me sort out all my plans,’ but more like ‘God help me know your plans, and live for your purposes.’
It was about this time that my five year old daughter came tearing out of the bedroom, and we sat down at the computer and sent a birthday gift to our Compassion friend Marisol in Bolivia. …it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand…
Nate
May 19, 2010
May 19, 2010 by nate
Filed under Pastors' Corner
Please pray for Pastor Nate and his family as they are on vacation this week. I know that he is very excited about the upcoming Mexico Missions trip, and would love for you to be praying for him and the team as they prepare to head down on June 4th. Pray that much will be accomplished, to God’s glory! Thanks.
May 12, 2010
May 12, 2010 by nate
Filed under Pastors' Corner
It occurred to me again this morning that my life is so much the ‘boat tossed in the wind’ kind of life. There are all kinds of things that ‘toss’ my life up for grabs…or at least the emotional state within which I choose to live it.
I woke up early enough to spend some time reading a couple of chapters of Acts, and to then write out some prayers and thoughts that were on my heart. “May I respond to life around me as though I was captured in your grace for me. As the sun warms the cold earth; may your Son lead, warm, and inspire me in this day…” I wrote as I prayed.
All was good until the doors of the house started to open. Then, just like the old cassette tapes when they got stuck…life begins to unwind. Kids up before they are supposed to be. Lists of things to get done before our impending vacation. I’m sensing something ‘funky’ in the air between Kathy and me. So much for being warmed and inspired…it is now about survival. I have to take care of myself. I have to guard me. Smaller and smaller and smaller I become until I’m sitting on this little emotional island a long way from my Savior’s warmth. I’m kindling the fires of my own self pity, trying to keep from freezing to death…
How will I live? Whose words will I respond to? Will I live in the Grace and Love of my Father or the voices around and inside me? How will I live?
Nate
May 5, 2010
May 5, 2010 by nate
Filed under Pastors' Corner
Conversation after conversation after conversation, over and over again…I keep bumping into people who say things like, “I feel like God is stirring in us,” or “There is something new for us or something more,” and “God is preparing us.” There is without a doubt a growing sense of what it might mean to ‘follow Jesus’ into the needs of our community and world. Personally, it has felt a bit frantic. One need after another, one ‘hurt neighbor’ after another….too many needs, too little time…
It is from this frantic place that I sense Jesus. The same Jesus that invited Peter off of the boat for breakfast. I’m reminded that he didn’t tell Peter to go meet every need, heal every sick person, feed every hungry person…He simply asked him to follow Him. In response to the love he had for his Savior and Lord…Follow. Right Now. Get STARTed. One prayer. One step.
Nate
April 28, 2010
April 28, 2010 by nate
Filed under Pastors' Corner
Sunday afternoon, Kathy and I were celebrating our birthday (we were born on the same day!) and talking about our privilege and responsibility in light of the world we live in.
“I have been crying a lot lately,” I said. Once again, the reality of how good we have it and kids dying from preventable diseases around our world had wrecked my heart. In some ways, the answer to my many prayers that God ‘would wreck my heart for the things that wreck His.’
“Why were you sad?” our 7 year old, Kaylin, asked. “Because children like you are dying from mosquito bites,” we responded. Her confusion was evident on her face. “The mosquitoes carry diseases and the children don’ t have the money to buy medicine to heal them,” we explained. “It costs about a dollar for every child that gets sick,” we continued, to her further confusion.
It was as if you could see the wheels turning inside her beautiful little head…hmmm, kids are dying, medicine that will help, we have money…hmmm “Daddy, you don’t need to be sad,” Kaylin offered, “we can do something about it.”
Nate
April 21, 2010
April 21, 2010 by nate
Filed under Pastors' Corner
“Follow You” by Leeland
|
You lived among the least of these The weary and the weak And it would be a tragedy for me to turn away. All my needs you have supplied. And I’ll follow you into the homes that are broken. Use my hands, use my feet And I’ll follow you into the homes that are broken. I give all myself. And I give all myself. And I’ll follow you into the homes that are broken |
A song that has taken the thoughts in my head and placed them in my heart –
Nate
April 14, 2010
April 14, 2010 by nate
Filed under Pastors' Corner
‘I’m getting a sore throat, didn’t sleep real well, am hungry, it’s cloudy again, have to make Kaylin’s lunch, have too many plates to spin, too many unanswered questions that need their answers…uggghh…’
‘I have to slow down,’ I tell myself…’before I drive everyone around me crazy, bite off my fingernails, respond to those I love in unloving ways’…I have to slow myself down.
‘Remembering my cancer days I’m thankful for my health, flannel sheets and a warm bed…I’m thankful, cupboards full of food, the rain God has blessed us with, my beautiful daughter that is healthy and an unbelievable joy…I’m grateful.
Still not sure if all the plates will keep spinning and how the unanswered questions will resolve, I choose to slow down and be thankful.
Nate
April 7, 2010
April 7, 2010 by nate
Filed under Pastors' Corner
What a privilege it was for me to be a part of the Easter services at SBC. By the 3rd or 4th service, yes it took me that long, I felt as if God was asking me…’OK, what is your FRESH START going to look like?’ In the middle of celebrating the fresh starts of those in the scriptures and those that gave testimonies, it hadn’t really occurred to me. Where does God want to give me a restart? Where does God want me to cross the caution tape and live more fully for him?
If you were like me, it was quickly on to lunch with friends and hiding eggs and breaking my lent with a big piece of cake. Around lunch, we talked about the beautiful music, the flow of speakers, the amazing testimonies…but we never got around to asking ourselves the real question. ‘OK, what is your FRESH START going to look like?’
Will I start giving in a new way? Praying more? Listening more? Journaling? Living more intentionally? Turning off the TV? Having the neighbors over? Inviting friends to places they could hear about and experience God? What? Where? When???
For many of us, we have given up in a variety of ways…how about we allow the Risen Jesus to lead us across the caution tape we so quickly surround our lives with and ‘follow Him?’
Nate
March 31, 2010
March 31, 2010 by nate
Filed under Pastors' Corner
Unbelievable… My mind and eyes are playing tricks on me; for some crazy reason they were telling me it had snowed. But I knew better. I knew the date. I knew that that just a couple of days ago I had hiked a high mountain in shorts and a t shirt. The shadows and light of the early morning were a bit strange, but I knew better…until I went outside.
I knew a lot of things until I stepped outside. Until I place my hand in the fluffy white stuff that covered the ground. Until I looked up to see a shower of floating ice. Until I stepped and heard the crunch of snow.
I can’t speak for you, but I’m guessing you are a lot like me, you need reminders. You need to experience the unbelievable at times, you need Easter. We need Easter. Our hearts are so quick to shame, to guilt, to bitterness, to boredom. Might this morning’s covering of the unbelievable move us to the much more difficult truth to believe…He is Risen, and we are forgiven!!! Happy Passion Week.
Nate
