R U a Waiter?

For those of you who are wondering if I survived my time of fasting the obvious answer is yes! I learned a few things about myself during my time of abstaining from food. I LOVE TO EAT! Now that was a revelation, wasn't it? It seems, at least for me anyway, that when I deny myself the things I like I will do about anything to come up with a way to get it. I begin to scheme and bargain with God to try to let me off the hook. When really all that God wants me to see is the hold certain things have on my life. One example of trying to bargain with God about fasting was I went back to the last meal and counted 24 hours and decided I could eat again at that time. Thankfully I continued until the next morning. Also thanks for your prayers! I told Deana I would be revisiting my time of fasting - I need it!
In my last post I mentioned the Scripture that talks about "waiting" on the Lord. What if Isaiah was talking about "waiting" on the Lord as in "waiting" on tables? What if the thing that brings us strength is working not sitting. We call the ones that take care of us at restaurants - waiters and waitresses. They are not sitting around doing nothing but are busy taking care of the needs of those customers that are eating at their assigned tables. So many people today seem content to just let someone else do all the work. The statistics say that 20% of the people in a church do 80% of the work. What could we accomplish for the Kingdom of God if 100% of the people were involved? WOW! What a thought!

To Fast or Not to Fast?

Yesterday I read a verse in Joel during my message. God is speaking to the people in Judah and He tells them "to come to Him with fasting, weeping and mourning". Well today I'm doing something that my body doesn't like very well- "fasting"! I know alot of people say you shouldn't say your fasting. I'm not bragging, in fact I need your prayers because it isn't what my body wants to do. I can remember my dad fasting for 21 days because he had a tough decision to make and he wanted to know God's will. 21 Days! Whew that's a long time! If you go back and read the Bible you will see alot of instances where people fasted and prayed for God to change their circumstances. Today we live in a instant society where we expect things to happen immediately. We've got microwaves that cut the time of preparing food down to a minimum. When we want to use our computer we expect our connection to be there immediately. To go back to Abraham, he waited 25 years for God's promise of a son to happen. Isaiah tells us if we wait upon the Lord He will give us strength. I could sure use some right now!

First Time

Tonight I get to experience something new. Most pastors I know have been a youth pastor at one time or another, but tonight will be my first time. It took me 11 years of pastoring before I had the opportunity to lead our youth. Did I plan on doing this? No, but things just happened to work out this way. Since I've been at NCC we've had 5 different youth leaders. The average length of time a youth pastor stays is 1.3 years, so it looks like we're right on the average. Deana will be working with me and I'm excited about that. She has so much energy and great ideas. If you think about us tonight please pray for us, because we will probably need it!

There are a lot of "FIRST TIME" events taking place this week. We as a nation have elected our first black president. We had a lady on a Republican ticket. Listening to the radio this morning on the way to work I got to hear some people excited about the events of yesterday and some not so excited. All I know is that the "Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone He chooses"(Dan. 4:17).

Election Day

Election Day 2008! I don't know about you but I will be glad when this is over. I don't know how many more commercials I could watch without throwing up. "I'm the best candidate because I accomplished this" or "I'm the one because of ________" ( you fill in the blank). I know I look at things very cynical sometimes but I'm trying to change. If you were President for one day what would you do? I would call every office and every organization that is under the federal government's authority and I would tell them that by the end of the day I expected their budgets to be cut in half. The wasteful spending of our government is ridiculous. If I could eliminate that I would feel like my one day as President would be successful! Honestly I know it's not that simple but when do we say "enough is enough". As you can probably tell I'm not a supporter of bigger or more government so you can use your imagination and determine how I voted. My neighbor, who is 7 years old told me he would vote for Obama because he was the one who was going to eliminate school. If you are looking for government to save you, you're looking in the wrong place!