Return to Rock Eagle

April 19, 2010

Hey Class of 93, any of you remember the 5th grade trip to Rock Eagle?  For decades now the Gwinnett County Schools has sent the 5th graders on a week-long trip to Rock Eagle in the summer.   I went back to Rock Eagle for the first time since that summer in 1986  this past weekend to pick up a student in my youth ministry from a weekend camp.  We had some great discussions on the road and pulling back into the park reminded me of one of the worst trips I think I have ever had.  Here’s what I mean:

It starts before we even got to camp, the bus we were on broken down on the middle of I-20 and we spent about 1 hour sitting on the side of the road under an over pass waiting for another bus to come pick us up.  After we finally boarded the second bus guess what?  It broke down also about 20 minutes later.  Well after boarding a 3rd bus we finally made it to Rock Eagle.  I should have understood the bus situation.  It was a warning from God trying to keep us away from the camp.  God knew bad stuff was going to happen!

After we got there we settle in our bunks and meet the counselors that were in charge of us.  I don’t remember much but only that we had a very strict counselor and got yelled at often for breathing the wrong way.  It seemed that all the other counselors were very loose and let their students do just about anything they wanted.

Another memory I remember was that some other students from another school kept wanting to fight students from our school.   They started throwing sand in people’s eyes randomly and running off.  I remember several of the guys in our cabin got attacked, I think Jason Brasswell was one of them.

The last memory was the best.  We had heard from the counselors that the movie Friday the 13th was partially filmed  there and like you should tell a bunch of 5th graders that anyway it added to the scary we got later in the week.  One day we decided to go look at the famous pile of rocks made by indians long ago (Rock Eagle)  They school drove us by bus to the big pile of rocks and after we were done they decided to let us all walk back to camp through the woods by ourself with no adult supervision.  I was in the back part of the group and several of us got lost on the way back as it started to get dark.  I remember freaking out as a kid thinking Jason was going to come out and get us with his chainsaw.  Finally we found our way back to camp and then we got yelled at by our super strict counselor for being late.

This was in the days before 2nd graders had cell  phones, heck this was before cellphones  weighed less than 15 pounds and you had to carry them in a big back pack so we didn’t have them to call for help or to call for our parents to come get us from the awful bad camp.   Makes me wonder if the person who invented the cell phone was a 4-H camper with us.

So, just wanted to say thanks Rock Eagle and thanks 4-H club for all the great memories you gave me.  Let’s do it again sometime real soon… NOT.  Well all joking aside, we survived just fine and that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

If you have any great memories of your experience at Rock Eagle please feel free to add comments!

Go Comets class of 1993

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Posted by John Weldon

Jesus and March Madness

April 7, 2010

Well congratulations to Duke and UConn for their wins in the NCAA tournaments this year.  I enjoyed watching some of the games this year, especially Uconn and Mia Moore.  What they have set as far as records is nothing short of amazing.   Our Pastor, a former collegiate player, has shown me where the women’s skill sets and techniques are so much better than the mens.  After watching a few of the games I must agree with him.

How did you do, our your brackets this year?  Did you enter into any contests or competitions with friends?  A few of the other youth pastors and I had a group and had a good time talking smack to each other.  I did how I expected to do, not any where close to winning.

Every time March Madness roles around  I can’t help but to think about Jesus and the prophecies in the Bible.  There is a lesson to be learned in the odds and mathematics of both the NCAA tournament and with Jesus fulfilling prophecy  Here’s what I mean:

According to BookofOdds.com the odds of picking every single game in the tournament correctly are 1 to 35,360,000,000.  Playing the lottery has better odds in most cases.  This is why some of the companies, like Dr Pepper and Yahoo.com,  can afford to create excitement by offering a 1 Million Dollar prize if you enter and pick every single game correctly.  It’s all about the odds for them and the money involved.

Well now that brings us to Jesus and the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah.  There are over 60 prophecies about this promised Messiah and details of His birth, birthplace, life, death, teachings, His nature, His resurrection, and events after burial, just to name a few.  All these are documented in Josh McDowell’s foundational book called “Evidence That Demands A Verdict” or His updated version “The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict”  (chapter 8, pages 164-202)   Josh McDowell was a atheist who set out to disprove Christianity and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but as he searched for answers he found out through his discoveries that indeed there was one true living God.

In McDowell’s reasearch he brings into the light the work of Peter Stoner in his book Science Speaks.  Stoner does a great job at the probability and statistical mathematics of Jesus and fulfilled prophecy.  Stoner took just 8 of the probabilities of the Jewish Messiah and figured out the odds at which Jesus or anyone would fulfill them.  He came up with a rather large number.  The odds were 1 in 10 to the 17 power.  That would be a 1 with 17 zero’s after it.  [1,00,000,000,000,000,000 ]  Stoner gives a great visual example of that number, because it is so big and hard for us to wrap our minds around.  Imagine that you fill the entire state of Texas with Silver Dollars 2 feet high.  You mark one Dollar with an “X” and then blindfold a man and have him take one guess and find the one dollar with a “X” on it.  Keep in mind that this is only 8 of the prophecies and not the entire lot.  Stoner’s research has been examined for years now and the mathematics in his work has been found to be solid.

Well, where do we go from here?  Let me just encourage you whether you are a believer or not, to take a closer look at the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.  I am quiet sure you will see something different with Him than with any other religious leader in the world.  There is a difference with Jesus because He was who He claimed to be, God.

As always your comments, questions, snide remarks are welcome.

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Posted by John Weldon

Why I believe Evolution is False

April 1, 2010

I will keep this short and spare you on some of the details.  If you would like the details I will be glad to send them to you or discuss them further.

Using the word FLAWED,  I would like to expound on 6 talking points that place a lot of doubt in Darwin’s theory of Evolution.  The idea came from Chris Sherrod, a friend and fellow student minister years ago.  Chris Sherrod also has written a chapter in the new book from Sean McDowell, called Apologetics for a New Generation.   I love using the acronym  and teaching it to students because of the ease of it to memorize. 

FOSSIL FALLACY – Darwin himself said that in order for the theory of evolution to hold weight that in order we must find proof in the fossils by what he called transitional fossils.  These are fossils that show us the process of evolution at work by finding fossils that are in transition from one form to the other.  Like half bird and lizard or also the half ape-man.  Well how many of these kinds of fossils have we found, Zero!!  Not one transitional fossil has been found yet and this throws great doubt on Darwin’s Theory.  Evolutionist have had to scramble around to try to find other theory’s to support their lack of evidence like “gap theory” which also brings more questions into the argument because it doesn’t fit the facts.

LAWS VIOLATED – In order for evolution to be true, it must break a few key laws of science.  The most important Law broken is the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics which states simply that over a period of time all complex systems go from a state of order to disorder.  That over time they breakdown and become less complicated.  Evolution states that everything we know came from a random “Big Bang” in the Universe and we slowly evolved into complex organisms over billions and billions of years.  Imagine taking all the parts of a wrist watch and placing them in a bag and shaking them up and they come together to form a nice new Rolex time piece.

Another Key law broken by evolution is the law of Biogenesis, which states that you can not create life from non-life.  Scientist have been trying this for decades and cannot break this law and create life in the laboratory but cannot.  You will never be able to get life from a granite molecule or life from other non-living matter.

The last law or principal is Cause and Effect.  Cause and Effect simply states that every effect has a cause.  similarly, every cause also is an effect of something else and also has a cause.   The cause is either a “what” or a “who”.  For example; what caused the vase to fall of the shelf?  The earthquake caused the vase to fall.  What caused the earthquake?  Was it the blasting of dynamite at the quarry next door or was it a real earthquake?  You can go on and on with layers of cause and effects.  What caused the earthquake?  Plate Tectonic movement, caused by the heat of the earths core, which is caused by the suns warming rays, etc…..  With respect to evolution, what caused the big bang that started the universe?  Even if you break matter down to its smallest form, to the sub-molecule level and start talking string theory and other new ideas, where did that come from?  Evolution has to answer 3 big bangs in reality not just 1.  The origin of matter, the origin of life, and the origin of conscience thought and a moral compass.

ABSENCE OF OBSERVATION – No one has ever saw evolution happen and there is no way to test it.  Let me point out the difference between Macro-evolution and Micro-evolution.  Macro evolution is the kind that Darwin wrote about.  It is the idea that we slowly evolved over billions of billions of years from a simple cell, primordial goo into fish and from fish to reptiles, from reptiles to birds and eventually other creations to primates to humans.  Micro-evolution also know as adaption is the faster process where in an organism, animal or plant change to adapt or survive from predators or climate.  We have seen and witnessed this process of micro-evolution, but this is not the same as Darwin’s theory of evolution.  Further more these adaptions have not gone from one species to another ie… snake to bird or fish to reptile.  Some examples of this, like the peppered-moth can be found in the section below under Erroneous examples.

WITHOUT A MECHANISM – Evolution has no purpose or reason.  Life cannot create itself and why would it desire to create itself for there is no reason behind all of the small details of the universe.  If there was life from the beginning, why would it need to evolve in the first place?  Why not just stay as the simple primordial ooze that it was.  We know that in nature there are mutations and with the process of Natural selection which we can see in nature, these mutations are harmful at best and most mutations  are eliminated by the process of natural selection and nature.

ERRONEOUS EXAMPLES – There have been many finding through out our history of so-called proof of evolution which have turned out to be false or cases where evolutionist thought or believed to be true without knowledge or fact.  Below are a few examples of many.

Peppered moth – got its name during the industrial revolution in England.  The moths were seen to change from a pure white color to a darker color and have spots that helped camouflage themselves from predators due to the rise of factories and smoke that came from them.  This is an example of microevolution and not macro-evolution.  Notice that the moth was still, a moth.  It didn’t change into a large bird or other species.  The process of Natural selection deems that the ones with spots were able to survive from predators better that the pure solid and lightly colored moths.  As the darker and spotted moths mated their kind and color began to increase as the others decreased.

The changes in the bone structure and skulls of people.  Much is made of height and other features, but in fact they are still human features not ape-men features.  Some finds have recently been under fire by scientist who believe that the few skeletal remains  found of curved or arched back bones were those of people who had a disease such as rickets.   We see people in our time today that have similar issues.

There are other examples such as the Archaeopteryx, Vestial Organs, Past ideas that fetuses had gills in utero, the list could go on but for the sake of time I will not.  Each had been thought of as further proof of evolution , but were found to be incorrect.

DESIGN & DNA – Can you imagine in all the evidence we have in the universe that it all was a random chance rather than a design set forth by a creator.  You can look at DNA and see the complex design and pattern of  life’s code.  DNA is some complex that it would make a computer program from Apple or Microsoft look like first grade math.  The DNA code in one single cell can hold as much information as the equivalent of 500 volumes of an encyclopedia.   The earth is finely turned to support life and if one detail of the earth was different in rotation, temperature, gravity, and etc…. Life would not be able to exist.  Try imagining a computer programing itself or a complicated invention like a watch or computer coming together all by itself.  Seems so crazy right, but if you don’t believe that God exist and created everything, then you have to believe that it all just is a random purposeless accident of chance.

I think it takes more faith to believe in evolution than it does to believe in God.  I really believe that the debate will go on for the next hundred and thousands of years without a single assurance that God created everything through a 6 day Biblical creation and the theory of evolution.  We may never know “for sure” to either side.   That’s when faith comes into play in the role of not having all the answers.  I hope that these points will cause you to think about what you do believe and why you believe it.  I will also follow-up this blog with another entry on why I do believe that there is a God in the near future.  As always I welcome your comments, questions, and opposing views.

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Posted by John Weldon

Where Did All The Dinosaurs Go?

March 23, 2010

Or rather what caused them to go away would be a better question.  A new report published today about a panel of 41 scientists from around the world says that a 9-mile wide asteroid was the cause of the extinction that took place 65 millions years ago.  You can read the article posted in a yahoo blog here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100304/sc_nm/us_dinosaurs_asteroid

As a 6 day creationist who doubts the earth is any more than 12,000 years old I just simply have to ask, “Where were you when you saw that asteroid hit?”  They say that science is based on observation and last time I checked the oldest people who are still living were only about 116 years old.  Maybe they found a stone tablet with a sentence scratched in it by a dinosaur; “Big Asteroid coming, 9 miles wide, we are all gonna die…..” (mocking the monty python and the Holy Grail scene where they explore the cave and read the writing on the wall)

It’s amazing to me that the theory of Evolution is still given as much weight as it is given even after the decades of research and non-existant proof that has yet to be found.  I know that we don’t know it all yet, and that goes for both sides evolution and creation, I don’t think we will ever know it all.  The Bible says in Deuteronomy 29:29 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”  Plain and simple this says that there are some things that we will never know or understand in our life, but that those things are for only God to know.

 I am tired of the scientific community making new claims and findings that they infer from the smallest bit of evidence or an educated guess about live thousands of years ago.  They make the news for a day and then are gone into the forgotten library of tapes and archives never to be thought up again, until a liberal college professor assigns a paper on evolution.  To this date there have been no transitional fossils (fossils that show evolution in process for example changing from a lizard to a bird) found, Darwin himself made comment that in order for evolution to be true there would have to be transitional fossils.

The Nebraska Man Drawing

Similarly, the ape-man discoveries of Neanderthal man have been found to be rare examples of people with back and spine problems  like rickets disease for example.  The other findings such as Java man, Piltdown man, Peking Man, Nebraska man, and Lucy, all turned out to have similar stories or have found to be fake.  My favorite story was Nebraska Man found in 1922, that was believed to be undeniable proof by paleontologist was all derived on a single solitary tooth!   Drawings were made of this supposed link to the past.  However, findings didn’t turn out good because some time later Harold Cook found another identical tooth, but this one happened to be attached to the skull of an extinct wild pig!!

It was just a little over 500 years ago that people thought the world was flat, and Christopher Columbus was sailing off to his death in search of a new world.  Just 60+ years ago the Nazi government got together and thought it was OK to slaughter millions of Jews.  These are just some examples of science and “the majority” of where they were wrong, I have no doubt that there will be more claims and events  like these in the future also.

One of the reasons I believe that man has such a hard time giving up on the theory of evolution is that it is simply the only other choice to choose other than accepting the idea that the Bible is true and that God created it.  Are we as people that hard to give up control and admit that we are not the top of everything.  When we recognize the idea that God is the creator and sustainer of life and of the universe we live, we also have to entertain the fact that we are sinful imperfect people who need help and need a savior to help us out of the pit that we are in.  I know I am a sinner and that if Jesus had died for me on the cross I would be in a heap of trouble.

As for the question posed in my title, “Where did all the dinosaurs go?”  I have the answer for you and it is… I don’t know.  It could be an asteroid, a flood, and a few other things as far s I’m concerned, but  I don’t let it keep me up at night.  I look to the Bible and to my relationship with Jesus for answers and if I don’t have an answer to something I trust God that I don’t have to have all the answers.

In writing this blog I feel led to write 2 follow-up blogs about why I believe in the Biblical creation story and why I do not believe in evolution.  I will out line the proof that I have seen on why there is only one choice.

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Posted by John Weldon

Healthcare Ranting

March 22, 2010

It’s been a while since I posted a blog.   I had to stay away for a while because the only thing really on my mind was political stuff that just moved me to angry and that was not good.  I’m still upset with what the Democrats in Washington have done, but I have a better perspective to handle it now.  As the votes came in Sunday,  I saw the writing on the wall begin to take form slowly as the news media began to announce 1 by one those who would now vote yes for the bill in question.    I will share a view thoughts I’ve had over the last few weeks and them share the last and final thought that gives me peace about the situation no matter what.

First, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a country so upset with a leader or party as I have now.  I know I’m rather young and have only paid attention to politics over the last 15-20 years of my life.  Perhaps my older more experienced friends could add some thoughts to that opinion.  Regardless, for me the healthcare reform that passed late last night has 10’s of millions of people very upset.  It will be interesting to see what will happen over the next months with the people.  Will people remember in November what took place in March, we have a tendency to lose steam and allow time to heal wounds, but this issue is too big to ignore or to let it fade away.  We will see come November, when the people get to speak for themselves instead of  a few hundred in power.

It will also be interesting to see what happens to costs, taxes, and medical care over the next few years to 10 years.  It’s to bad that we can’t track that with some degree of absolute certainty.  When costs and taxes go up the Democrats will say it was for some other reason, I’m sure.   It’s also too bad I can’t bill my insurance premium increases to the 219 “yes” voters when things do change.   Some may not be in power anyway after November.

Secondly, I noticed the last democrats to switch from no to yes were the group led by Michigan  Representative, Bart Stupak.   This group of Pro-Life Dems wanted to see in writing how Abortion would not be supported in any way by Federal monies.  They finally gave in to an agreement by Obama that he would write an executive order to back up the already fuzzy legislation.   It was this last group of switch voters that enabled the vote to pass.  There were anywhere from 4-8 dems who would not vote yes until their Abortion issues were handled.    If Obama had not written an executive order they would not have passed the bill, because they only had 219 votes and the minimum of 4 representatives would have turned the vote the other way.  As a strong supporter of life and against abortion  I was only mildly satisfied with this solution.  The reason being that an executive order is only as good as the president makes it and if the next person to take the office of president can change it with the stroke of a pen.  In addition to that, Any court that hears cases based on the issue of abortion is bound by the law and not the executive order, it in effect means nothing.  I use the example of trying to catch a baseball using a wet piece of toilet paper, it’s not going to happen.

This is another government entitlement program that will expand over the next decades and eventually become too bankrupt to work much like the social security program that was started years ago and that I will probably not see one penny of.  I love the sign I saw on a protester on TV last week.  “Equal rights, not Equal Stuff.””  We have come so far from the desires and beliefs of the past country founders and it’s not looking pretty where I stand.  It’s a proven fact: The more handouts you give, the more people are going to take.  The more they take, the less they will want to work for and earn for themselves.  If I’m a student who makes bad grades, of course I would want the class average for a grade rather than my own grade of D or F. 

Last, the one thought that gives me peace in all the frustrating times is that, God is still in control.  Even when things don’t go our way or when bad things happen to you.  God is still in control.  Yes, things will start to change and bad stuff will always be around to rain on your parade, but God is still charge and there is NOTHING that happens that he does not permit to take place.  HE took care of you for years now and he will also take care of you in the next years to come.  When you think about all the stuff that gets you upset and moves you to action, it may be good, but also keep in mind that one day this will not matter anymore and those who have a relationship with Christ Jesus will spent eternity with Him in Heaven.   I am reminded of the old Audio Adrenaline song “You Can’t Take God Away from Me.”   It was big back in the 90’s when schools were under fire for not allowing Christian clubs to meet on school grounds.   The chorus says the following:

You can’t take God away from me, you take my life, my land, my liberty.  You lock me up, I’ll still be free, because you can’t take God away from me.

Government is not the answer to all our problems.  God is the answer to the issues at hand.  If we search the Bible and ask God what he desires for us to do and how to live our lifes we will find an answer.  The Bible does speak on the issues and if we will listen and not turn away from His rules desires for our life I know that He will guide us through every step of the process.

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Posted by John Weldon

Let Scripture Speak

March 9, 2010

Sometimes, I just can’t find the words to say or to share just the way  I want.  I like to turn to the Bible and let it speak to me, speak for me.   I can’t do a better job than God.  Psalm 51 was a psalm of David.  He wrote it after he was confronted by the prophet Nathan about his sins with Bathsheba and her husband.  He wrote it when he felt probably the lowest spiritually in his life.  No,  I didn’t do anything like David did, but I’m can identify with him and how he felt.  I long for forgiveness and a fresh start in life, ministry, and with my family.   I pray that I will never again find myself far away from God and that He will keep me on the straight and narrow path.

1 Have mercy on me, O God,
       according to your unfailing love;
       according to your great compassion
       blot out my transgressions.

 2 Wash away all my iniquity
       and cleanse me from my sin.

 3 For I know my transgressions,
       and my sin is always before me.

 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
       and done what is evil in your sight,
       so that you are proved right when you speak
       and justified when you judge.

 5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
       sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

 6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts ;
       you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

 7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
       wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

 8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
       let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

 9 Hide your face from my sins
       and blot out all my iniquity.

 10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
       and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

 11 Do not cast me from your presence
       or take your Holy Spirit from me.

 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
       and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
       and sinners will turn back to you.

 14 Save me from bloodguilt, O God,
       the God who saves me,
       and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

 15 O Lord, open my lips,
       and my mouth will declare your praise.

 16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
       you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
       a broken and contrite heart,
       O God, you will not despise.

 18 In your good pleasure make Zion prosper;
       build up the walls of Jerusalem.

 19 Then there will be righteous sacrifices,
       whole burnt offerings to delight you;
       then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Taken from the NIV Bible

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Posted by John Weldon

Still Not Watching DWTS

March 5, 2010

Thank you ABC for yet another reason to NOT WATCH Dancing With the Stars.  As if I needed another reason anyway.   Let me start by saying I don’t have anything against dancing or with the show first.  I just could careless about the show or dancing all together.  Yes, you guessed it, it’s because I can’t dance at all and I am just a jealous hater….  I have no rhythm.  Well , I was longing on to my email when I got the bad news.  Dancing with the Stars announced its new line-up of stars and Kate Gosselin (Jon and Kate + Eight) was one of the celebrities that will be on the show this season.

I’m not sure why, but, after seeing a few episodes of their show I picked up how nagging and just plain annoying that Kate was to Jon.  It must seem from years of 1980 Sitcoms starting with Rosanne and Home Improvement leading all the way through Everybody loves Raymond.  No I’m not against women’s rights or anything either, just stating the facts, just the facts.  It seems that over the past 2 decades the “Dear Dumb Dad” has been the standard in many shows, while this is probably true for my household, this is not always the case in real life.   

One thing that has bothered me is when you publically criticize a spouse, or child or loved one in front of an audience.  There are some things that should just be left private and between families.  I know that there are times when you need to say something right away, but most of the time, the talk can wait.   Yes, their life was on TV and many things were made public, but we all have to be responsible for the stage we have regardless if it’s before millions on TV or just modeling a great behavior in front of our own children.  Remember they are watching you!!  In Closing, I might decide to watch an episode of Dancing with the Stars if I heard ahead of time that Kate falls of the stage or twirls into the band or gets dropped in a dip.

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Posted by John Weldon

Religion, the “Old Comfortable Shoe”

March 3, 2010

My oldest daughter got her first cell phone last week and the look on her face was priceless when my wife and I sat her down to give her the news and explain the ground rules and responsibilities.  Watching her enjoy her new phone gave me a few thoughts that I thought I would share.

New things are exciting… Phones, Cars, Relationships, etc…  I remember recently when we finally ditched the dish and went with Comcast cable.  My wife and I were enjoying learning about the new On-Demand features and finding new channels to watch.  Does everything fall into that same pattern, is everything in life doomed to have it’s 15 minutes of fame and then fade out into the annals of history like Members Only Jackets and parachute pants.  What about God and church life?  I think the answer is a great big “NO.” 

 I think the one main methods you can keep your Faith in God from becoming “the old comfortable shoe” is to not neglect it and to intentionally change some of the practical ways you live it day-to-day, such as prayer time, study time, how you share it with others, etc…   When you allow your relationship with Christ to become a routine, you can kiss the excitement goodbye.   I know I have allowed it to become that way from time to time and I have to try to snap myself out of the “spiritual coma” that I fall into and wake back up.  The same thing would be true if I neglect to talk with my wife and kids on a regular basis, the relationship would suffer.

Another spiritual sleeping pill you can add is the unpopular, new hush word in many churches that nobody wants to hear about anymore, SIN.  Sin and or Unforgiveness will do more damage to your relationship with God than anything.  When we have unconfessed sin in our life, it blocks the conduits of blessing from God and keeps us from going forward in our relationship with Christ.  If we are holding a grudge against a brother or sister in Christ we really need to deal with that first before anything else.  Matthew 5:23-24 give us that Biblical model to follow.

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. – Matt 5:23-24

In closing would you consider your faith more of a religion than a relationship?  Does your faith seem more routine than alive and vibrant?  If you answered yes to those questions it might be time to stir some things up and change the way you do things.  Ask God if there is anything in your life that is keeping you from enjoying an exciting relationship with Him, I know he will reveal it to you if you ask.

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Posted by John Weldon

The Adventures of 4 Yr Olds in “Big Church”

March 1, 2010

Zachary

Sunday my wife was working, so I had the kids at church by myself.  I usually have responsibilities with the Powerpoint or audio so many times I don’t get to sit with my family at church on Sundays.  Makes me thankful for the times I do get with them each week.  My 4-year-old son, Zachary has been coming into the morning worship service for the last few months rather than staying in the preschool class and it has been a distraction sometime, but for the most part I enjoy watching him worship in his own ways.  He has the option to stay the whole service or to leave and go to children’s church part of the way through the service.  Here are a few notes I have taken watching him participate in worship in his own way.

I guess we will have to invest into a toy set of drums from his birthday or Christmas.  Recently during the worship music he will take out 2 hymn books and place one on his lap and one on the pew next to him.  Next he will take 2 pens (one for each hand) and start drumming away to the beat of the music.  He stops when the music stops and starts again when another song begins to play.  I’ll have to enlist Daniel, our church drummer, to give him lessons.

He also enjoys wasting offering envelopes by drawing all over them.  But at least he is planet friendly, he will rip open the envelops and draw on the inside before getting another one from the back of the pew.  I’ll have to remind myself to start bringing some scrap paper.   His favorite thing to draw of course is trains.  He can draw you all the different types of cars and couple them together on his paper.   Good to see the hobbies are passed down from generation to generation.

At one point I notices that he was giving the people around us a good stare-down.  He would just stop and look at them and I wish i knew what the thoughts were going on in his head.  Was he examining peoples worship style or trying to give disapproval of their singing voices.  (Move over Simon Cowl)  He gave our pastor’s wife a nice long stare and she just smiled back and kept singing.

Between Allison and my parents I think he had 3-4 pieces of Gum during the service.   He needs to learn to chew it just a bit longer before swallowing the gum, or maybe he just needs some of that stride brand?  When I get home now I have to add cleaning my pockets of gum paper to my to-do list.

This year we have been trying to teach our kids to tithe on a more consistent basis and we have started giving each money to put in the offering at the end of the service.  He enjoys putting his dime in the plate as it comes by and writing his name on the envelop and sealing it up before church.

I’m looking forward to the years to come and what else may spawn from him over the next few years.   I’m glad he is in church and taking in how mom and dad worship and I know that we are creating a foundation for him that will last and one that he can stand on for years to come.  It’s worth the times I have to tell him to listen and stop doing this or that.  He will learn.

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Posted by John Weldon

A Boy, A Prostitute, and A Murderer

February 25, 2010

OK, quick let’s play a round of try of Tri-Bond.  It’s the game where you list 3 things and then name what they have in common.  So here goes, what do a boy, a prostitute, and a murderer all have in common?    The answer, they were all used by God to do godly things for the Lord.

This post is for me, more than anybody.. Sometimes I have the habit of being very judgmental.  Sometimes it’s on myself and sometimes it’s aimed at others.   If you take some time and thumb through your Bible you will see quite a wide list of people who God choose to use to accomplish His will.   Below is a short summary of a few of the different kind of people who choose to use and the scriptures where you can read about them.

Each of these people had 2 things in common.  1.) They had to learn to let go of their past in order to move forward into what God had asked them to accomplish.  2.) They had to obey God and do what he asked them to do with what resources they had.  Yes, some of them questioned God and wanted to run away from it at first, but they all eventually let go of their past and obeyed God’s desire for their life. 

This is really a 2-sided coin, or rather 2 ways you can look at it.  Sometimes you might not feel like you are not the right person for the job or that you are incapable of doing what you know God has put on your heart, stop listening to the lies of Satan and take a lesson from the many pages of the Bible where God used ordinary, plain, average people to accomplish his will.  I love the scripture “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” Acts 4:13.  Give me hope for myself.

On the flip side of the coin, you have to be careful that you don’t make judgments based on the outward appearance or past of people.  God can change people in an instant and with God’s help He can motivate ANYBODY into new areas leadership or accomplishments.  The old saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover” comes to mind.

Take the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 in John 6:1-15.  Keep in mind the 5,000 was only the men counted.  There were other women and children there as well.  Jesus saw were the crowd was tired and hungry and he wanted to meet their needs.  He asks the disciples; “Where will we get food for these people to eat?”   I love the response of Phillip, “8 months wages would not buy enough for all these to have a bite!”  Then comes Andrew, Andrew was always a man bringing people to Jesus.  He brought his brother Peter to Jesus, and now he was bringing this little boy to Jesus who had 2 loaves of bread and 5 fish.  Andrew didn’t know what would happen and how it would happen but he knew that Jesus had the answers.  Be an Andrew in your life.  Always look for people who God can use no matter what they look like or what they have in the way of resources, education , social class, race, etc…

Also be like this little boy who didn’t have much, but he was willing to give it to Jesus to help or be part of the solution.  That’s what God wants from us, only what we have, and not any more.  Are you willing to give up all you have to let God do something great with it?  Will you be like Moses (a murderer)  or Rahab (a prostitute) and let go of your past and do what God has called you to do and let him use you to accomplish something great?

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Posted by John Weldon

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