Conformed or Transformed?

I took a Missions Trip to Mexico back in 1990 and David Roller was the missionary there. Since then, he has changed positions a few times and is now one of the Bishops of the Free Methodist Church. He has posted an interesting concept he came up with on his blog and I wanted to share it with you.... I had a cool idea recently while studying Acts 15. As a part of their ruling on the Gentile Christians, the Council of Jerusalem said, "we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God." And I thought, "what a great principle!" I know that it's a time-honored tradition to make it difficult for people to decide to follow Jesus (and He sometimes did too, like the rich young ruler). But Jesus usually made it easy, made it attractive to follow Him (free fish, free healings, free kingdom of God). I thought about our traditional altar calls ("every head bowed, every eye closed...") and how they made it hard to come to Jesus. Then it came...

This is the song of my heart today.

Life has been very hectic with the start of school this year. Andrew is in high school and just finished his driver's education. A lot of changes for us. I am finally finished with classes and tomorrow is my ordination ceremony down in Fremont, MI. It feels good to have reached that goal. I started this week with Pastor's Prayer and Fast Retreat down at camp. It was a good time to meet with other Pastors and get to know some of them, as well as the time of meeting with God. Betweeen the retreat and my ordination and my wedding anniversary this month, I have been in evaluation mode. I am evaluating each relationship I have: my marriage....both to Brian and to God, my relationship with my children and also my relationship in ministry. I have been overwhelmed this week by the deep responsibility I carry in each relationship. So, I am evaluating, setting goals and praying for each one. Here are some of the questions I am asking myself: 1. How much time do I spend on thi...

I have been watching some of the speeches this week from the Republican Convention. I was really impressed with Sarah Palin. She's got such personality! You could feel the people being drawn in by her speech and by the end, you could tell that they loved her! The commentators at the end of the speech were saying what an incredible job she did and then it immediately went to a clip about a lawsuit she is currently fighting in Alaska. I was really disappointed. It seemed they took her great moment and tried to squelch it. Every decision she has ever made, her family life, her job, everything is under scrutiny. It got me thinking, what if my life "went public" tomorrow? What if others evaluated my every decision? If they scrutized how I raised our family and spend my money, how would I hold up? Would they have a lot of "dirt" to proclaim to the press or would they see a life of integrity? 1 Peter 2:12 says to live such good lives among the pagans that, ...

Music amazes me. It can set the mood and tone for your day. It can change your day. It can lift you up. The flip side...it can bring you down, as well depending on what you are listening to. For the past couple of weeks, I have set my alarm to wake me up to the song "Trading My Sorrows". I have been amazed at how it has changed my view on the day. If I wake up with anything heavy on my heart, it is a reminder that I need to give that to the Lord and trade my frustration, anger, worry, sadness, ect.... for the joy of the Lord. Listen to the song....let it speak to your heart as it does every morning to mine...

I was outside pulling weeds in my garden and was reminded of the spiritual impact of "pullin' weeds". If the weeds are left to themselves in the garden, they will take over the beautiful flowers and vegetables that should be growing there. The garden was meant for beauty and producing fruit (or vegetables). We may think that now that we are a Christian that we have our ticket to heaven and that is enough. IT'S NOT! We have to pull the weeds, the sin, to be what God created us to be. He desires that we grow, flourish and bear fruit, but sin left untreated, will take over our life and choke us out. I can go out on any given day and pull at least ONE weed. Spiritually, I can go to prayer and seek my heart and almost always find at least ONE weed (sin, bad attitude, ect.) that needs to be removed. How about you? When was that last time you opened your heart up and let God reveal improper motives, attitudes and sin? Does your heart break over the sin or have you become in...

Last week was an amazing week with Vacation Bible School. It was a long week and took an extra 40+ hours out of my week, but worth it. I trust that God is going to grow the seeds we have planted at VBS. This week I have been working diligently on the youth group plans. We are doing Alien Youth and I have been writing all the lessons for the next 6 weeks. I am very excited about it all. We are going to have a ton of fun and learn what it means to be a Christian in this world, but not of it. I have to save the details, so it will be a surprise for the youth, but I WILL be sharing as it unfolds. Looking forward to the last weekend of "freedom". School starts on Tuesday with Andrew in high school and Olivia in 3rd grade. We were going to go away for the weekend, but think we will just relax at home and maybe spend some time out on the boat and have a few friends over for a cookout.