Three Pastors

Three Pastors were having lunch together at a diner. The first Pastor said, "Ya know, since summer started I've been having trouble with mice in my church. I've tried everything--noise, spray, cats--nothing seems to scare them away.

The second Pastor then said "Yea, me too. I've got hundreds living in the basement of the church. I've set traps and even called an expert to get rid of them, yet they still won't go away."

With a grin on his face, the third Pastor said, "I had the same problem so I baptized all mine and made them members of the church... Haven't seen one back since!!!"

The Greedy Farmhands

Matthew 33-34"Here's another story. Listen closely. There was once a man, a wealthy farmer, who planted a vineyard. He fenced it, dug a winepress, put up a watchtower, then turned it over to the farmhands and went off on a trip. When it was time to harvest the grapes, he sent his servants back to collect his profits.

35-37"The farmhands grabbed the first servant and beat him up. The next one they murdered. They threw stones at the third but he got away. The owner tried again, sending more servants. They got the same treatment. The owner was at the end of his rope. He decided to send his son. 'Surely,' he thought, 'they will respect my son.'

38-39"But when the farmhands saw the son arrive, they rubbed their hands in greed. 'This is the heir! Let's kill him and have it all for ourselves.' They grabbed him, threw him out, and killed him.

40"Now, when the owner of the vineyard arrives home from his trip, what do you think he will do to the farmhands?"

41"He'll kill them—a rotten bunch, and good riddance," they answered. "Then he'll assign the vineyard to farmhands who will hand over the profits when it's time."

42-44Jesus said, "Right—and you can read it for yourselves in your Bibles: The stone the masons threw out is now the cornerstone. This is God's work; we rub our eyes, we can hardly believe it!"This is the way it is with you. God's kingdom will be taken back from you and handed over to a people who will live out a kingdom life. Whoever stumbles on this Stone gets shattered; whoever the Stone falls on gets smashed."

45-46When the religious leaders heard this story, they knew it was aimed at them. They wanted to arrest Jesus and put him in jail, but, intimidated by public opinion, they held back. Most people held him to be a prophet of God.

1 John 2:1

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One

Congats Josh and Kelly!

I just wanted to say congratualations to my cousin Josh and his new wife Kelly who got married this past weekend in Canton, Mass. Best wishes and have a safe trip back to LA!

Beach Baptism Reflection...

A few weeks ago we had our annual Beach Babtism. Unlike most of our youth events this one had one purpose in mind... you guessed it Babtism! This year was like most years except for this year, but it is one that I will always remember. We had two very differenet people take the plunge. One of which is a good friend of mine that I met thru work, and the other is a student that had been going to Sunrise for about a year. To say the least I was proud of both of these individuals, but it made me start to think of the paths that we take in our lives. I was thinking about the journey that these two people had been on... the sorrows of loss... the joy of love... and feeling of a new begining. In a short time...1 year roughly... I watched God transform these two. God broke them down and built them back up with ease, and all it took was for them to listen and not fight the feeling of God pulling at their hearts. Don't fight God... you will be shooting yourself in the foot.

The Goat and the Pastor

A young couple invited their pastor for Sunday dinner. While they were in the kitchen preparing the meal, the minister asked their son what they were having. "Goat," the little boy replied.

"Goat?" replied the startled man of the cloth, "Are you sure about that?"

"Yep," said the youngster. "I heard Dad say to Mom, 'Might as well have the old goat for dinner today as any other day.'

Wake Up From Your Sleep

Ephesians 5:1-2

Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.

Glory Defined

Psalm 119:6-13

How can a young person live a clean life?
By carefully reading the map of your Word.
I'm single-minded in pursuit of you; don't let me miss the road signs you've posted.
I've banked your promises in the vault of my heart so I won't sin myself bankrupt.
Be blessed, God; train me in your ways of wise living.
I'll transfer to my lips all the counsel that comes from your mouth; I delight far more in what you tell me about living than in gathering a pile of riches.
I ponder every morsel of wisdom from you, I attentively watch how you've done it.
I relish everything you've told me of life, I won't forget a word of it.

Oh to the Community Group!

Appologies....

Sorry about the 2 week absence! Schedule has been crazy at work and I was on a week vacation to Cape Hatteras! There will be regular blogs starting tomorrow!

Never Give Up

Never give up on yourself... you can be changed.

Proverbs 11:14

Without good direction, people lose their way; the more wise counsel you follow, the better your chances.

Ephesians 4:26-27

"In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold."

Soul Cravings

The following is a paraphrased excerpt from "Soul Cravings" by Erwin McManus. This one is a little long!

The best that I can tell, no matter how power full it feels, the staying power of love isn't that high a percentage.

The intensity of love seems to have no bearing on its resilience. If anything, the more you love someone, the more capacity you have to hate him or her. And why, by the way, does it seem like half the time you didn't even know you were in love till you lost it? Is heartbreak the only way to know it's the real deal? After all, the only people who can hurt you deeply are the ones you allow to get deep inside your soul. This is what makes love so dangerous. The more that you love someone, the more a person can hurt you. When you give your heart away to someone, you entrust it to that persons care. Your beloved can pretty much do whatever him or her wants with it. You are vulnerable and defenseless. Isn't love grand? No wonder we are all searching for it.

No, lets rethink that.

Given all the problems love can create, why do we keep longing for it? How many thousands of years will it take for us to learn? How many Romeos and Juliet's need to lie dead on the floor before we are willing to give up this addiction? I know that Romeo and Juliet are not real, but is love? If evolution is our preferred understanding of the human story, why can we not evolve ourselves out of this primal Achilles' heel we know and love?And don't give me this thing about the propagation of the species. Love isn't necessary for reproduction - just sex is. All you need is attraction, not emotion... If intimacy is only about attraction, we could just keep lust and dispense of love.

How in this post-information age, in the era of the technological revolution, we still need something as primitive as love? No matter how many time we fail at love or how many times love fails us, we plow ahead. Even the scars of love rarely stop us from risking at love.

Strange as it seems, in the midst of our most painful memories, we find our most treasured ones. If you had the chance to erase all the memories of your greatest love to free of the pain of losing it, would you? I wouldn't. I don't think that many of us would.

We are addicted to love, and it's our of control. We would give anything and everything to find it. Here is where is start to draw a theory. There is more going on here than meets the eye. It's as if we have been purposefully designed with at factory defect that keeps us searching for love. It seems humiliating to say it, but we need to be loved. I need to be loved. If you try to ignore it, if you think that you can live your life without love, you are in the worst shape the the person who's desperate to find it. "To give up on love is to choose a life that is less human. To give up on love is to give up on life."

When you give up on love, everything else seems to go with it- joy, hope, forgiveness, compassion, they are all connected. But you might wonder to yourself; What if I never find love? After all, you can't be held responsible if you never searched for love, risked in love, even fought for love, and yet have always found it unrequited. When love does not come to you, it breaks you heart. One thing stranger than our need to be loved is our need to love, which leads me to ask "Are we designed for love?"

There was a monologue from the movie "Thin Red Line" that talked about the nature of love.
"My dear wife, you get something twisted out of your insides by all this blood, filth and noise. I wanna stay changeless for you. I wanna come back to you the man I was before. How do we get to the other shores? To those blue hills? Love. Where does it come from? Who lit this flame in us? No war can put it out, conquer it. I was a prisoner. You set me free." What is this love? Where does it come from? Why are we so affected by is presence and its absence?

We can not live unaffected by love. We are most alive when we find it, most devastated when we lose it, most empty when we give up on it, most inhumane when we betray it, and most passionate when we pursue it. The human story seems more driven by the insanity of love than the survival of the fittest.

Can you be honest enough to admit how love pulls you, woos you, eludes you, torments you - sometimes all in the same day? You were created for relationship. This is and always be the core of your being. All of us have a need to belong, and all of us are on a search for intimacy. No matter how many things about us are different, in this we are all the same - we crave love. It is as if we are all searching for a love we have lost. Or perhaps more strangely we are searching for a love we have never known but somehow sense is awaiting us.

The most powerful evidence that our souls crave God is that within us is a longing for love. We are all connected by a thin red line.

Take a little time...

I had the opprotunity today to work 0ut with one of my students and it got me thinking. What if we all just took a little time out of our day and spend it with the young people of today? I really do think that it would make a huge difference in the lives of our students... to show that someone cares...to show that someone loves them no matter what.

I challenge the adults reading this. Take time for the next generation. They are the future, but they will not have a future if they are not surrounded by the right kind of people. You may be saying "Jon... when do I have time to hang out with teenagers?"

Well here is the answer to your question..."Whenever you can!". You do not have to go to an amusment park or a zoo to be a positive influence in their lives! Take them to the gym, invite them over for dinner, ask them to tag along on a family trip to the beach! You will find that you can minister to them throughout by just asking them to tag along in while doing your daily tasks. Don't leave them behind...

C-KID

Continue to pray for all of those attending Centri-Kid this week! Remember to pray for the staffers as well!

Crazy Thoughts....

Just a little randomness to add to your day!

Why does the Easter bunny carry eggs? Rabbits don't lay eggs.
Do Siamese twins pay for one ticket or two tickets when they go to movies and concerts?
Why are they called 'Jolly Ranchers'? Who said that the ranchers were jolly?
Why does caregiver and caretaker mean the same thing?
Can a short person "talk down" to a taller person?
If a bald person works as a chef at a restaurant, do they have to wear a hairnet?
If milk goes bad if not refrigerated, does it go bad if the cow isn't refrigerated?
How fast do hotcakes sell?
Do prison buses have emergency exits?
Do astronauts change their clocks when they move over different time zones in space?
Can you cry under water?
Why Does Pluto Live in a dog house, eat dog food, etc. but Goofy, who is also a dog, lives in a condo and drives a car?
If you blew a bubble in space would it pop?
Are children who use sign language allowed to talk with their mouth full?

Personnal Shout Out!

I have wanted to give a quick shout out to some people in my life....just a way to say thanks!

Mom and Dad- Bryan and I owe you everything. Your toughness and strong hand when we were acting out has made us into the men we are today. Not an easy task. We love you both very much.

Big Brother- We have not always seen eye to eye on almost anything, but I know that I can always turn to you in my time of need. You are the best big brother anyone can ask for. Love ya bro.

Students of Sunrise - You are all the reason that I am still in Virginia. You are an amazing group of young people and the future is bright for all of you. Remember that sometimes our lives don't make any sense at all; and it can be hard at times but remember that I love all of you and you can come to me for anything!

Nethery's - You guys are awesome! Thank you for adopting me into your family and helping me grow as a person and spiritually. If only you were not from Texas!

Bryan and Kevin - You two are my safety net. Every time that I fall down, you both have been there to pick me up. You are a true friends. Bryan- I am honored that you have made me Alex's Godfather. Love you man! Kevin - Thru all that you have been thru, you continue to inspire me. You have the world ahead of you, and remember that you are never alone!

Goober - Thank you for everything! In the short time that I have known you, you have become a pillar for me to lean on. You just need to stop being so ghetto! LOL!

Who cares...

What do people of think of you? Do you care?

Ecclesiastes 7:14

On a good day, enjoy yourself;

On a bad day, examine your conscience.

God arranges for both kinds of days

So that we won't take anything for granted.

Sharing The Faith...

There was a barber that thought that he should share his faith with his customers more than he had been doing lately. So the next morning when the sun came up and the barber got up out of bed he said, "Today I am going to witness to the first man that walks through my door."

Soon after he opened his shop the first man came in and said, "I want a shave!" The barber said, "Sure, just sit in the seat and I'll be with you in a moment." The barber went in the back and prayed a quick desperate prayer saying, "God, the first customer came in and I'm going to witness to him. So please give me the wisdom to know just the right thing to say to him. Amen."

Then quickly the barber came out with his razor knife in one hand and a Bible in the other while saying, "Good morning sir. I have a question for you..........Are you ready to die?"

Never Alone

One night I had a dream--I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord and across the sky flashed scenes from my life.

For each scene I noticed two sets of footprints, one belonged to me and the other to the Lord. When the last scene of my life flashed before me, I looked back at the footprints in the sand. I noticed that many times along the path of my life, there was only one set of footprints. I also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in my life. This really bothered me and I questioned the Lord about it. "Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you would walk with me all the way,but I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life there is only one set of footprints. "I don't understand why in times when I needed you most, you should leave me."

The Lord replied, "My precious, precious child,I love you and I would never, never leave you during your times of trial and suffering. "When you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."

Deuteronomy 31:6

Be strong. Take courage. Don't be intimidated. Don't give them a second thought because God, your God, is striding ahead of you. He's right there with you. He won't let you down; he won't leave you."

Fear and Relationships

Fear- the one thing in our life that is constant. Everyone has it, and everyone struggles with facing it. From the fear of worms to the fear of heights, we are presented with many different opportunities to concur these fears. Some of us do... but what if your fear is something that plagues most people...the fear of being alone. I struggle with this fear often; sadly, I think the only reason that I have this fear is because of what I have to do to concur it.

I would have to submit myself to this person. I would have to be vulnerable.

To be vulnerable is the one thing that scares me the most in a relationship because that is when you are most likely to get hurt.

But a wise person told me tonight that "If your are in relationship with a person and you are both pursuing God in that relationship; growing in God together, your relationship will be wonderful. The expectation that a relationship will be perfect is just being naive.We are human... there will be fights, there will be disappointments, there will be heartbreak, but the moment you give it all up to Christ you will grow stronger." Of course this is all paraphrased just because that was allot to take in!

I will always struggle will allowing myself to be vulnerable, but I have found out tonight what I should be looking for in a relationship. I want someone that will challenge me to grow spiritually, cause once I do that... the rest will fall in line.

I read a quote that said "Life is a chance to grow your soul". I say this to all of you that read this. Do not let the fears in your life stop you from experiencing it. Cherish the moments as they come and continue to honor God, because the moment you stop either of these things your soul stops growing.

I want to say this the wise person that told me this tonight... thank you. In the short time that I have known you, I have grown to admire and adore you. Whatever happens, I know that you will help me and challenge me to turn to God in during the storms of my life. The world needs more people like you!

Isaiah 40:31

But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
They spread their wings and soar like eagles,

They run and don't get tired,

they walk and don't lag behind.

What really happens at Fuge!

Who said that worshiping God could not be funky!