A Big Thank You

I just wanted to say a great big thank you to Merry Weber and all of her helpers for a great VBS. I may have had just as much fun as the kids did! I don't know if people are getting tired of it but once again Eastside proved to be a great church. I also want to thank everyone who came last night to put our church back in order!

I will be away on vacation this week; someone told me not to think about the church this week, but I really love thinking and praying about our church because I know that God has some really great things in store for us!

Thank you for loving me and my family, we will see you when we get back!

Prayer Meetings

Ok, I want to share something with you that may not be something a believer, much less a pastor should admit. I don’t like prayer meetings. Every time I go to a prayer meeting my one thought is, “how can I get out of here!" I know, I know, this isn’t good, but for some reason I just don’t like spending large amounts of time praying and prayer meetings obligate to something I am incapable of doing. I have to be honest, when I have shared my secret with other believers I never got the help I was looking for, instead I was told all the reasons why we should pray. So my guilt over this has been an obstacle in my faith. What I didn’t do was take it to God. And when I did I found this quote: “I don’t often spend more than half an hour in prayer at one time, but I never go more than half an hour without praying”. --Smith Wigglesworth. Imagine my surprise to find out that the greatest Pentecostal evangelist of the 19th and 20th centuries didn’t spend long periods of time praying. What he did was exactly what the Bible tells us to do. “Pray without ceasing…” 1 Thessalonians 5:17. This is something I can do and frankly have been doing all along.


I know that there is benefit to devoting a segment of time to praying, and believe me when the circumstance presents itself I can pray and pray intensely. But here is what I want the people of Eastside to know. God has designed prayer in such a way that we can all do it no matter what our personality dictates. God likes all prayers and He wants us to pray! No excuses! Just pray.


Just so you know, I believe that by God’s help I will be able to develop the discipline to pray better and who knows maybe even longer. But I will pray and from now one I will actually enjoy doing it. And how great was last night’s prayer meeting, I walk away from the church knowing I had been in the very presence of God!

Episcopalians, People leaving early, and 1 John 1:9

Some Sundays really stand out and yesterday was no exception. We have been working on the sound for our worship team because we have been very fortunate to add new instruments in the last few months. So there have been problems with getting everything balanced, but in spite of that there have been some tremendous worship services. Someone told me lately it feels really good to come to Eastside and feel like it is church, meaning it feels good to know that God is here! Now in every church there are different tastes for how the worship service should be. Some like a more vibrant, active, and energetic worship time, while others want a worship experience that is reflective, quiet, and tranquil. (yes, I used a big word and I actually know what it means!). So to try and accommodate everyone’s wishes is almost impossible. And it seems to be a hopeless task for there to be much compromise. Now for those who may not know this Eastside is a Pentecostal church and Pentecostals tend towards a more active worship service than say, Episcopalians who like things more sedate. Eastside has both! But we are working hard on it and will find that middle ground before too long. My vision is that Eastside provides an effective worship experience, for both the Pentecostal and the Episcopalian!

Hey, what is with people leaving early? Well I need to be honest because that isn’t what I’m really after so let me ask the real question I am thinking about – When it comes to Sunday plans, why are the Christians always the ones to compromise their time? Not wanting to get too heavy here, just asking? If we don’t respect our churches enough to stay until the end; how will our unsaved family and friends ever hope to share that same respect? When we believers allow such disruption to our attendance how do we make the case that being part of the church is an essential part of the Christian’s walk? Like I said, just asking.

Do you still remember the verse we memorized yesterday! I hope that you will take me up on my challenge to remember it, because I think you will be surprised at how often you will be able to use it when sharing your faith with unbelievers!

I expect that we can all agree that Eastside is a great church, and that it is ok to enjoy the times we come together! I am glad to be part of a church that tolerates and hopefully appreciates a Pastor who likes to laugh, and cry, but mostly laugh, with the people he loves!

Becoming the Person God Wants Me to Be

For a long time now I have felt the challenge of the Lord to become the kind of person God wants me to be. Which after being a believer since I was eight years old, you would think I had figured out how to do that. But guess what? Not that I haven’t been trying, it is just that no matter how much I try I still find it hard to elude the wickedness of my heart. But in searching the scripture I have found that there is a very simple method that God wants me to practice that will help me become the person He wants me to be. It is so simple that I am surprised that I have missed it. (Well, on second thought, I’m not sure I really missed it as much as I resisted it) The Bible gives several directives to examination of who we are and the things we do. As a matter of fact, self-examination is included in the celebration of the communion, which we are told to carry out on a regular basis. In other words, God wants us to take the time to examine life regularly.

So over the next few weeks I am going to be bringing a series of messages during the Sunday services which will challenge us in the areas of life we should examine. These messages may be hard to receive because one or more of these areas will probably hit close to home. I know that because they all do that to me. So for the rest of this month lets just consider the things God will speak to us as taking a journey together. Sometimes we will cry together, and sometimes we will laugh together. The reason I bring that up is because self examination has to be real and will probably reveal things we would rather deny, but as we share together it will be easier to see the truth of who we are and the areas we must surrender to God. So I wrote this as a way of asking permission to meddle into your life as we talk about becoming the person God wants you to be. Can you handle it? I hope so because in the end it will be worth it!

Thoughts about Miracles

For a long time I was under the impression that if we were in need of a miracle that we had to find a way to get God’s attention. I thought that when we prayed, what we were really doing was trying to get God to notice us and to notice our need. But I am finding that in many ways I have been wrong about this.

Yesterday, as Lori was sharing about the miracles that God was doing in the healing of Landon, I started to come to terms with the idea that God knows we need a miracle because He allows us to be put in that place. But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. --Genesis 50:20. Joseph made this insightful statement to his brothers who had sold him into slavery to Egypt – their intention was to destroy him because of their jealousy. But God had another plan, a plan to use the evil that was done in order to do something amazing for Joseph and also for the people of Egypt. So when things happen to me God can take those negative things and use them to do something remarkable through me, to me, and to those in my life. Don’t get me wrong I don’t want bad things to happen to me or to those I love, but I do want miraculous things to happen. As I surrender my life to God and let Him lead me I get to live an interesting, if not extraordinary life!

One more thing, I am always humbled that I get to pray for people and their needs, thank you so much for trusting me to pray for your needs. But most of all thank you for letting me pray for you, because it allows me to fulfill what God has called me to do!

When Jesus Seeks Faith

In my message yesterday we looked at a question Jesus was asked, “will there be few saved?” And Jesus gives this answer, He says, “Strive to enter though the narrow door.” And then He goes on to talk about people who think they are saved but must not be after all. So on the way home I always ask Gloria how I did and she said what she almost always says, “it was good.” (OK, I need to put this answer in some kind of context because reading it doesn’t give you the true flavor of her answer, she didn’t say, “It was GOOD.” It was more like, it was good, like it was just above being boring.) But Aaron said, “Dad, I like it when you talk to us about the rapture.” Wow, my 12 year old likes hear about the rapture. So I want to share just a couple things that I didn’t get a chance to say.

There is a verse in the Bible that says this -"I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8) So here we have Jesus Himself, the One who will return essentially asking when He comes back will He find anyone to rapture. Of course He will because what He is telling us in the passage is to be vigilant about the things of God…especially prayer. Is the church really praying for Him to return? Imagine wanting to go somewhere to do something totally amazing – like take people to heaven to live eternally, but finding, that as much as Jesus wants to return, the church isn’t all that sure. I will say this, the older I get the more ready I am to go. I’d like to stay here for a long time, but if Jesus takes me I am fine with that because I have been able to live a pretty good life. But the older I get the more ready I am to let go. But truthfully, I can’t remember the last time I prayed for Jesus to return.

One more thing, you don’t have to wait to until death to find the assurance of salvation. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) The good news is that Jesus not only wants to return, but he really does want to find people waiting for Him and He has set everything up for us to succeed if we really want to. I want to leave you with one more scripture. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9). He is giving us enough time to get right with Him before He returns. Oh, He is definitely going to find faith, the question is will it be YOU?

Forgive Us As We Forgive Others

So what should we do when God requires us to do something beyond or ability to do? Yesterday we talked about forgiveness and we discovered a couple of things about being a Christian and forgiveness.

First, for the Christian forgiveness is mandatory. Second, for the Christian forgiveness is restoration. According to the example that God gave us, restoration is the completion of the process of forgiveness. God created forgiveness before the world was created. We know this because the Bible says that our righteousness was planned before the foundation of the world. And the whole point of God’s forgiveness is to restore the broken relationship that existed between God and ourselves. As Christians, the forgiveness we receive from God is connected to our forgiving others. And through God’s act of forgiveness we are restored to fellowship with Him. So what God wants from us is to forgive and then to restore broken relationships.

Now as I was putting last week’s message together I realized that I do not want to be restored to some of the people who have offended or hurt me in my past. I think this happens with a lot of us. Because we in the church have tried to redefine forgiveness as something that we can do to feel better about being hurt or offended. We even say things like if we forgive, then the person who benefits is ourselves. (I cannot find that backed up anywhere in scripture) So we forgive but don’t do anything to restore or repair the broken relationship, because even though we forgive them, we still don’t want to deal with them. Why? Because what we don’t want to accept, and what we don’t want to experience is the part of forgiveness that no one and I mean no one ever talks about – pain.

Yes, the forgiveness that God extends to you and to me caused Him pain. There is no way around it. If God were to forgive the way we do, He would feel better but not offer us restoration. God doesn’t forgive so that He feels better or to benefit Himself, but to restore us to Him and that caused Him great pain.

So here is where I struggle – restoration is going to mean pain, embarrassment, humiliation, and vulnerability. Exactly the things Jesus endured when He forgave me!

I’m looking forward to hearing your stories of forgiveness over the next few weeks!