A few months ago something happened that doesn't happen often to me. I told a few people, but just didn't get a chance to put it on here.
I heard a knock at the door one day. When I went to the door a lady was standing there. This is a lady I've never seen and haven't seen since that day. She told me that someone downstairs wanted her to give me something.
She gave me an envelope. The envelope had a couple of Bible verses on the front of it. After I saw the verses I went outside and looked for the lady, but even though it had only been a minute she was gone. I even went downstairs and there wasn't anyone nearby.
So I opened the envelope. There was $100 inside. I called everyone that I knew that I thought would give this gift to me. No one knew what I was talking about, but praised God with me for what had happened.
It was incredible. We don't know if someone just left us this awesome gift, or if maybe it was an angel. I don't know and won't know this side of Heaven.
Praise God for this gift.
God Rocks, Jtw
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Bring it!
Mark 10:46-52 (New Living Translation)
Jesus Heals Blind Bartimaeus
46 Then they reached Jericho, and as Jesus and his disciples left town, a large crowd followed him. A blind beggar named Bartimaeus (son of Timaeus) was sitting beside the road.
47 When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
48 “Be quiet!” many of the people yelled at him.
But he only shouted louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
49 When Jesus heard him, he stopped and said, “Tell him to come here.”
So they called the blind man. “Cheer up,” they said. “Come on, he’s calling you!” 50 Bartimaeus threw aside his coat, jumped up, and came to Jesus.
51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked.
“My rabbi,” the blind man said, “I want to see!”
52 And Jesus said to him, “Go, for your faith has healed you.” Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus down the road.
I was reading this today and it really stuck out to me. Sometimes we feel bad because we bring to much to God. We forget that he doesn't see it that way. He wants us to come to Him and bring everything to Him. He loves us and wants us to be with Him. All we have to do is bring our hurts, our praises, our wants, our needs, our selves to Him.
I often forget this. Then at other times I feel bad when I scream at God. David did this often in the Psalms and he was the man after God's own heart. This is God's will, that we come to Him. That's all we need to know.
Go read the verses again. The blind man came to Jesus when he knew he was there. He came without anyone telling him and didn't stop calling even though he was being ridiculed . He brought it all to Jesus. That's enough!
God Rocks, Jtw
Jesus Heals Blind Bartimaeus
46 Then they reached Jericho, and as Jesus and his disciples left town, a large crowd followed him. A blind beggar named Bartimaeus (son of Timaeus) was sitting beside the road.
47 When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
48 “Be quiet!” many of the people yelled at him.
But he only shouted louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
49 When Jesus heard him, he stopped and said, “Tell him to come here.”
So they called the blind man. “Cheer up,” they said. “Come on, he’s calling you!” 50 Bartimaeus threw aside his coat, jumped up, and came to Jesus.
51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked.
“My rabbi,” the blind man said, “I want to see!”
52 And Jesus said to him, “Go, for your faith has healed you.” Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus down the road.
I was reading this today and it really stuck out to me. Sometimes we feel bad because we bring to much to God. We forget that he doesn't see it that way. He wants us to come to Him and bring everything to Him. He loves us and wants us to be with Him. All we have to do is bring our hurts, our praises, our wants, our needs, our selves to Him.
I often forget this. Then at other times I feel bad when I scream at God. David did this often in the Psalms and he was the man after God's own heart. This is God's will, that we come to Him. That's all we need to know.
Go read the verses again. The blind man came to Jesus when he knew he was there. He came without anyone telling him and didn't stop calling even though he was being ridiculed . He brought it all to Jesus. That's enough!
God Rocks, Jtw
Monday, July 06, 2009
Give Thanks?
Today I was reminded to give thanks. It's something to simple yet in our culture very very over looked. Tonight I heard a pastor teach about 1 Thessalonians 5:18. Basically this verse says that God wants us to give him praise no matter what.
This reminded me of a situation that I haven't told many people about, mostly because it blew me away. I have seen a lot of things in my life and am not very often surprised. When I talk about being blew away, it means it changed me forever.
Here's what happened. If you know me you know I often dislike my job. The reason I don't like it is because basically I have a pastor's heart and there I'm almost forced to be a jerk. When I'm not a jerk I get fussed at. One day I had an evaluation by someone who doesn't like me at all. They basically said all the horrible things they could think of and how horrible I was at this job.
That day like many days a church volunteer group comes in. I was feeling pretty bad at this point right. So the the pastor preaches like normal and during the song he walks over to me. He leans over to me and says "don't give up now preacher, it'll get better." Before you ask, I've never seen this man before. When I looked at him he just smiles at me and walks away. I quickly realized that I just physically heard from God. I've never seen the guy, or even told the guy that I'm a pastor at all. He's never seen me. A few months later he came back and asked me if things got better. When I said yes he said that I should praise God and wait for the next thing.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 says for us to give God praise no matter what happens and that's what God wants us do. This moment changed my life. I began looking at this job as somewhere that God's placed me until I get to the next thing that God has for me. I began giving God praise for the job, and that changed my life. Now even though I don't necessarily like being a jerk, I've changed how I approach the job.
So can you give thanks to God no matter what? Can you praise God when you have to go to a job that frustrates you daily? Can you praise God when you lose a friend? It's easy to praise God when we have something great happen, but how about when our life is falling apart? Think about this, praise God anyways. Often when I get frustrated because something isn't working out, I find out that God had something planned and I see how it was for the best. Sometimes I don't see the outcome, but again I must praise no matter what.
Praise God!!
God Rocks, Jtw
This reminded me of a situation that I haven't told many people about, mostly because it blew me away. I have seen a lot of things in my life and am not very often surprised. When I talk about being blew away, it means it changed me forever.
Here's what happened. If you know me you know I often dislike my job. The reason I don't like it is because basically I have a pastor's heart and there I'm almost forced to be a jerk. When I'm not a jerk I get fussed at. One day I had an evaluation by someone who doesn't like me at all. They basically said all the horrible things they could think of and how horrible I was at this job.
That day like many days a church volunteer group comes in. I was feeling pretty bad at this point right. So the the pastor preaches like normal and during the song he walks over to me. He leans over to me and says "don't give up now preacher, it'll get better." Before you ask, I've never seen this man before. When I looked at him he just smiles at me and walks away. I quickly realized that I just physically heard from God. I've never seen the guy, or even told the guy that I'm a pastor at all. He's never seen me. A few months later he came back and asked me if things got better. When I said yes he said that I should praise God and wait for the next thing.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 says for us to give God praise no matter what happens and that's what God wants us do. This moment changed my life. I began looking at this job as somewhere that God's placed me until I get to the next thing that God has for me. I began giving God praise for the job, and that changed my life. Now even though I don't necessarily like being a jerk, I've changed how I approach the job.
So can you give thanks to God no matter what? Can you praise God when you have to go to a job that frustrates you daily? Can you praise God when you lose a friend? It's easy to praise God when we have something great happen, but how about when our life is falling apart? Think about this, praise God anyways. Often when I get frustrated because something isn't working out, I find out that God had something planned and I see how it was for the best. Sometimes I don't see the outcome, but again I must praise no matter what.
Praise God!!
God Rocks, Jtw
Thursday, May 28, 2009
unthink?
Today I was watching some T.V. and that KFC commercial came on about unthinking their fried chicken. Something hit me like a ton of bricks. Today's culture is all about "unthinking" things and challenging all we know and how we do it. Think about it this way, we've rethought about fuel and come up with cars that run on corn or electricity. We've rethought how information gets passed and we came up with the Internet. We've taken what we've always known and decided it can be better and we asked "why" do we do this this way.
This is what hit me so hard. If we're in a culture where we're asking "why" we do things they way we do and we change things that don't work, then why is the church the same. God's church is God's hope for all of us and it should be the leading component of change and be the decider, not playing catch up.
We know that God's gospel changes lives and God's people (the church) are the people to spread that Gospel. When does change happen with us? When do we start thinking "let's unthink how we do church and how God's people relate?"
This generation of teens have the highest probability of not accepting Christ. They way we've always done things isn't working on this generation as well as it has before. It's time we UNTHINK how we do things. God never changes, but the methods he chooses for us must change.
We've got to start thinking outside of the box if we're going to express the only chance for people to not die and go to Hell. Do I know what that change is....no! Each day I pray that God will show me His methods and His vision for the future of His people.
It's time we pray and Unthink what we've always done. We have a present generation and many future generations at stake if we don't. I for one don't want to take the chance that I didn't do all I could to reach them.
God Rocks,
Josh
This is what hit me so hard. If we're in a culture where we're asking "why" we do things they way we do and we change things that don't work, then why is the church the same. God's church is God's hope for all of us and it should be the leading component of change and be the decider, not playing catch up.
We know that God's gospel changes lives and God's people (the church) are the people to spread that Gospel. When does change happen with us? When do we start thinking "let's unthink how we do church and how God's people relate?"
This generation of teens have the highest probability of not accepting Christ. They way we've always done things isn't working on this generation as well as it has before. It's time we UNTHINK how we do things. God never changes, but the methods he chooses for us must change.
We've got to start thinking outside of the box if we're going to express the only chance for people to not die and go to Hell. Do I know what that change is....no! Each day I pray that God will show me His methods and His vision for the future of His people.
It's time we pray and Unthink what we've always done. We have a present generation and many future generations at stake if we don't. I for one don't want to take the chance that I didn't do all I could to reach them.
God Rocks,
Josh
Thursday, April 23, 2009
On the Roll again...the update!!
Ok so it's been a while, but a lot has happened since my last update. Also, I spent a lot of my blogging time on Northstar's blog.
Since i last blogged...My church I was serving at merged with another one, my daughter was born, I've moved, the new merged church dissolved my ministry, and I work at a juvenile justice center.
OK, well that's a whole lot in the past few months huh!!
I'm on the roll again because of that dissolving of the ministry thing. You see I'm called to student ministry. When I say called I don't mean I just like doing it. I mean I'll do whatever it takes to go where God wants to send me and share the Gospel with students.
I'm looking for a place to serve. I love God and love people. I spend my life pushing toward my 2 main areas: Worship and Service. These 2 things are what I'm all about and what i put into any ministry I'm apart of.
For now I serve at a church plan (the merged church) and play bass guitar there. I work (TO MUCH) at the kids jail and try to have to much fun with my beautiful wife and gorgeous daughter.
So that's the update...have fun with it and if you have any leads I can pray about let me know.
God Rocks,
Josh
Since i last blogged...My church I was serving at merged with another one, my daughter was born, I've moved, the new merged church dissolved my ministry, and I work at a juvenile justice center.
OK, well that's a whole lot in the past few months huh!!
I'm on the roll again because of that dissolving of the ministry thing. You see I'm called to student ministry. When I say called I don't mean I just like doing it. I mean I'll do whatever it takes to go where God wants to send me and share the Gospel with students.
I'm looking for a place to serve. I love God and love people. I spend my life pushing toward my 2 main areas: Worship and Service. These 2 things are what I'm all about and what i put into any ministry I'm apart of.
For now I serve at a church plan (the merged church) and play bass guitar there. I work (TO MUCH) at the kids jail and try to have to much fun with my beautiful wife and gorgeous daughter.
So that's the update...have fun with it and if you have any leads I can pray about let me know.
God Rocks,
Josh
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