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Tunesday - "There Will Be a Day"

It seems lately that a number of close friends have been going through some tough times. "There Will Be a Day," by Jeremy Camp has to be one of my favorite songs out right now. Here's a link to a video of a brief 3 minute devotion by Jeremy Camp regarding this song. And also here's the song set to some video.

I trust that this song ministers to you as much as it does to me.

Trust Is a Two-Way Street

I've often been told that trust is an earned benefit that comes from experience with another. In other words, if I have no reason to trust in someone or something, then I will not freely hand out my loyalty or faith to them. However, I've been thinking about the whole premise of this very assumption.

A well known scripture found in Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV) states, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."

Ponder this with me for a moment. In reality, I have no immediate absolute premise on which to base my trust that I am suppose to give to God. On the contrary, the book of Hebrews says that faith (a well known synonym for trust) is believing without seeing: "sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see."

I have never physically heard, seen, touched, smelled, or to cover the five human senses, tasted (except for a freshly brewed cup of coffee, slice of butterscotch pie, or a hot Krispy Kreme glazed donut straight off of the line in the store: which I would argue all taste heavenly!).

Without faith or trust, it is impossible to please God or even have relationship with Him. But here in lies the beautiful irony of God. When God creates us, he creates us with what is called a "free will," meaning we can make up our own minds. We can choose to trust God or not, and God will completely respect our individual choices. So if we choose to trust God or place our active faith in Him, then we'll spend eternity with God in heaven. But if you choose not to trust God, then we will spend eternity away from Him in hell.

I said all of that to say this. Trust is a two-way street. God created you with your own mind and will which means He completely trusts you. Did you get that? God has given you complete authority over your own life! God never asks for more than what He has already given. He has given you His complete trust, so we should give him ours. God has given us His life, so we should give Him ours. 

Friends

I've recently went over the 600 mark for my friends list on Facebook. As I've gone through life, I've had the privilege of meeting a good quantity of quality people. Facebook has been fun being able to catch up with some friends from high school, college, and a lot of the places we've visited since we started traveling. Some on my friends list are mere acquaintances. Some are old friends. Some are new. How overwhelming it is to look back through my life and see that God has always been with me and provided me with such a healthy supportive group of friends.

But here's the one thing I've learned about friends: You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose. But you can't pick your friend's nose. No wait, that's not right. Scratch that.

I've learned that there are many people you can call friends along the way, but true friends are few and far between. In that I mean those people that will drop everything to help you with anything anytime. It's those people that rejoice when you rejoice, cry when you cry, lend an encouraging word when you're down, and speak in loving truth when you're too high.

I'm so blessed to have my wife, Katie, as my best friend. I love her with all that I am.

I'm so blessed to have so many that call me their friend.

But most of all, I'm so blessed to have such a relational God that loves me for who I am because He uniquely created me that way. Christ even sticks closer than a brother.

Now, let's all sing together Michael W. Smith's infamous song, "Friends." "Friends are friends forever, when the Lord's the Lord of them."

No wait, that's not right either. Scratch that too. I hate that song!

Tunesday: "Through It All"

It's been a while since I posted a Tunesday edition, so here's an older song that has been resonating with me for some time now.

On New Year's Eve I had the privilege of being a part of a concert, and during that concert a good friend of mine sang "Through It All" by Andre Crouch. Obviously, this song is a bit our of my normal genre of music, but it has impacted my greatly. As I listened, I could hear the Holy Spirit echoing the words of this classic song deep in my innermost being.

Here are the lyrics to the song and also here's a link to a Youtube video of Andre Crouch singing this song at Billy Graham crusade. The video is a little choppy, but if you're a little younger and have never heard the song before, you'll get the point.

(chorus) Through it all through it all
Oh I've learned to trust in Jesus
I've learned to trust in God
Through it all through it all
I've learned to depend upon His word

I've had many tears and sorrows
I've had questions for tomorrow
There've been times
I didn't know right from wrong
But in ev'ry situation
God gave blessed consolation
That my trials come
To only make me strong

I've been to lots of places
And I've seen a lot of faces
There've been times I felt so all alone
But in my lonely hours yes
Those precious lonely hours
Jesus let me know that I was His own

I thank God for the mountains
And I thank Him for the valleys
I thank Him for the storms He brought me through
For if I'd never had a problem
I wouldn't know that He could solve them
I'd never know what faith in God could do

Lyrics & Music by Andre Crouch 1971 Manna Music, Inc. ARR UBP of Manna Music, Inc.

A Self Interrogation

I've been in a searching mode of my life over the last few months. I feel like different things have changed in my ministry and life that have brought me to a place of self-reevaluation.

Here are some questions I've been asking myself:

1. Does Christ remain the center of my life, family, and ministry?
2. Am I certain that I am staying true to the specific call of God on my life?
3. What is working for me?
4. What is not?
5. What do I need to change?
6. What are my plans to make the necessary changes?
7. What benchmarks and goals do I need to make in order to ensure progress?
8. What resources do I need to accomplish these goals?
9. Who is going to hold me accountable?

Am I ready to change?

A self interrogation is always a necessary catalyst before entering a new level of life. One definition of insanity is continuing carry out the same act and expect a different result. I've clung to the motto, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always be where you've always been."

Dr. George Wood's Reaction on Palin-God Cartoon

"The leader of the world’s largest Pentecostal denomination denounced a cartoon that mocks Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, Pentecostalism, and Christianity as 'despicable.'"

Dr. George O. Wood is the General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God here in the United States. The A/G has somewhere around 3 million church goers in the US alone.

There was another demeaning attack last week by the severely slanted left-wing media in the ever increasing liberal Washington Post against former Assembliesof God church attender, Gov. Sarah Palin.

You can read Dr. Wood's reaction in this article found on The Christian Post.

Tunesday - "Jesus Is My Friend"

This is just one of the funniest videos I've seen in a long, long time. I've been meaning to post it for a while, but since it is Tunesday today...

Here's a few things to watch for:

• What's up with the large grand piano in the middle that is going un-used?
• Look out for the lead guitarist...he's rockin' it!
• And by far my favorite line is, "...he is like a Mountie, he always gets his man. He will zap you any way he can. ZAP!!!"

For those of you that get this via an RSS feed reader or email, just click on this link to see the highly acclaimed video of "Jesus Is My Friend."

This is classic! Hope you enjoyed!

Evangel Assembly - Perkasie, PA

Katie and I had a wonderful time this past weekend with Pastor Gary & Cindy Saul at Evangel Assembly in Perkasie, PA. We were blessed to have the privilege of encouraging and uplifting the precious people of this church.

On a special note... We had the honor of staying with true heroes of the faith this past week. Anthony and Angie Sorbo are just incredible saints. Anthony was a missionary to Indonesia for many years, and Angie was the Missionettes Director for the Penn-Del District for about 18 years I believe. I love this great couple!!!

Gov. Sarah Palin & Religion

Here are some more interesting articles concerning the current Republican Vice Presidential candidate, Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin.

If you remember from my first post (which seemed to stir up a good bit of interest), here's one article..., then here's some more.

1. Palin: Pray U.S. Plan in Iraq Is God's Plan
2. Palin Fires Up Conservatives
3. Pentecostalism Obscured in Palin Biography

Gov. Palin went up another rung on my ladder after according to this article, Oprah Winfrey refuses to have Gov. Palin on the Oprah show even after Sen. Obama was previously on the show. (There's something about Oprah that just gets under my skin!)

***If you so choose to leave a comment, which I thoroughly encourage, please remember a general rule of blog comment etiquitte..., don't leave a comment longer than the actual blog entry. If you want to talk that much, then get your own blog and write it there!!! Thanks!***

2008 Steeler Predictions

Last year, my predictions weren't that far off for the Pittsburgh Steelers. With the season to kick off this weekend, here are my thoughts for this season. (Aren't you excited!?!)

The Steelers left off last year with much room for improvement losing 4 of their last 5 games. So here are the questions the Steelers need to answer this year.

1. Can the offensive line protect the franchise, Ben Roethlisberger, even after losing perennial pro bowl tackle, Alan Faneca? - For what it's worth, Pittsburgh has been one of the worst teams in the NFL giving up sacks, and Big Ben continues to produce (In fact, Ben finished with 104.1 passer rating, which was second in the NFL only to Tom Brady!). We got rid of Shawn Mahan, who I saw laying on his back or turned around watching Ben run for his life, one too many times last year. In Mahan's place is Justin Hartwig, who seems to have it together. However, RT Willie Colon still kills me, but I guess he can't do much worse than what he did last year (Someone please tell me again why Max Starks is still on the bench!?!)!
2. Can Troy Polamalu stay healthy and bring the "Steel Curtain" down upon its opponents? In my book, when completely healthy, Troy is one of the best overall defensive players in the entire NFL. He can completely take control of a game and the Steelers' defense has a bite to its bark when Polamalu is on the field. However, Troy has been injury plagued for the past two seasons. He needs to stay healthy for Steelers to remain an elite defense in the league.
3. Can we do any worse in special teams? Not much more needs said. Wow, we stunk on special teams last year! We do have Jeff "Skippy" Reed with his golden leg, and Rookie Rashard Mendenhall looks good on returning kick offs (as long as he doesn't fumble!).

So here's what you've been waiting for....

The Steelers will finish the regular season 10-6 and that will win the division! Also, they'll win one playoff game, however, I'm not sure how much deeper Pittsburgh go into the playoffs because much of that will depend on the health of the players and momentum.

LET'S GO STEELERS!!!