Blame God.

A few years ago when I was a teenager I had a bumper sticker that said Blame Canada. As you may think this sticker got me in trouble many times with people from Canada. Even though I thought it was funny I ended up taking it off my 1989 white van ( I was pimping).

I feel that at times we use the thought of Blame God when bad things happen to us. When a family member dies or a major earth quake happens we blame God. But yet when good things happen then we take all the credit for it right? This is all so wrong it is not even funny. Why do bad things like someone getting cancer or losing there job or a husband or wife running out on there family happen? It is because of sin and not God. We have to take the heat for it. When God made us we were made perfectly in the image of Him. Adam and Eve took and ate the fruit and at that very moment sin entered in the world and us. Bad things happen because sin entered the world.

This means that we should not be blaming God for the bad things but take some of the blame ourselves and lay it at the cross of Christ. Today I spent a long time in prayer and meditation on who God is and I started to cry uncontrollably because of how great God is. I do not blame Him for anything. But instead I thank Him that even though I am sinner He brought me into His family to live a life for his kingdom. To me that is a humbling thought.

COME TO SAVE US

Jesus came from heaven to us in a manger. This is not just a christmas story but it is the story of God restoring a broken relationship. May you ,today know Jesus Christ and know that he did not come to condom but to save.

Thirsty People

As I preach I pray that people to become fans of me but I pray ,as I hope you do fellow pastor/elder,that the church will become fans and thirsty for the living water from God. Do not entertain your church with funny jokes but instead give them passion, the passion for more of God.

We all need to become like a deer, thirsty for more of the stream.

WOW.

So this morning I was writing and I started to think about the year I have had. Talk about a roller coaster.

I was at a church for only three months when the pastor told me about a few families that wanted him out. My first church meeting in January I saw how ugly people and sin can really be. After the meeting that lasted about four hours they kicked the pastor out. I was only the youth pastor now without a senior pastor. In just 6 months I saw and heard things from people in a church that would make some people wanna throw up. It was sick but yet God kept helping me to fall in love with The Church , His bride. During everything that was going on with people cursing other people out right before and during the service God was growing the youth ministry. I can remember times that we did not have enough room because of the kids that showed up. Students where getting saved and being baptized and it was sweet. In October Kim and I left there and are now at a church named Mosaic in Highland ILL. God is doing so many things in and around our ministry it is really cool.

Kim and I over the past year have grown so much and I am so thankful that God has done the things in my life and marriage that he has done. This year I have learned a little more of what it means to be a pastor after being a husband. God has also blessed Kim and I with a child that will be born in June 2011.

As you can see God has been up to a lot just in my life and it is so cool. I am really looking forward to seeing what God does in 2011. I pray that I will stay close to him and never stray from hearing His voice. May God bless you in 2011.

Prince Of Peace.

The last few days I have been thinking a lot about one of Jesus' names The Prince of Peace. In the days that we live in I know that it is hard for people to truly see this. We have war all around us, people are loosing there homes and jobs and at times it may seem like there is no peace in the world. Let me tell you about a family that knows the prince of peace.

This past Sunday I was talking to a guy at Mosaic and I have found that they do not know if his wife will be around the next day. She has so many viruses and some of them the doctors have no clue what they are. This guy has not be able to work for about 11 years now but he leads his family and he is at church every Sunday and his wife is out greeting people and I could tell just by talking with him that they love the Lord.

You may think that your life is going nuts and your world is spinning out of control but before you go crying and throwing in the towel you may want to look around. Jesus Christ is the Prince of all Peace and if you will take time to speak with him he will show you that. He loves you and wants to have a relationship with you. We are not perfect but I thank God that we do not need to be to know the King of All Peace.

Be blessed this Christmas.

War on Christmas? What a Joke

So I know even now as I write this that I am going to make people made but I want to let you know some of my thoughts on this "war on Christmas".

First Jesus Christ is the main purpose for Christ but people it is not the only holiday that is being celebrated. Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and many others. For us to say that this time of year is only about us (The birth of Christ) is I think kind of prideful. Jesus Christ was not born in December it was around the fall.

Now do not get me wrong here. I am not saying ," Let's coexist then". All I am saying is that can we stop this WAR ON CHRISTMAS crap and stop being prideful about Christmas and telling other people that they can not celebrate what they want to. Paul tells us to be all things to all people. So instead of yelling at people if they do not wish you a merry Christmas instead share Christ in your actions and words and be humble and ready to be used by God to reach out to the lost.

Reaching the lost.

So today I went had coffee with a fellow pastor and I asked him a question that I am glad I asked. The question was" what are some ways he reaches out and shares the gospel with people?".

Wow we had a good talk and we came up with an idea for the next time we meet ,which is every other week, we are going to start going around to places like Denny's and so on and start sharing the gospel with people and being a part of peoples life's. We also talked about how we can do this on a regular basis.

Here are some ideas.

1) Ask your waitress right before you pray for your food how you could pray for her

2) Start working on sharing the gospel with people in 30 seconds.

3) When you go to Starbucks while you are waiting for your coffee talk to the people waiting around you about how is life for them. Don't act like you care but really care about them.

4)Bless someone with a cup of coffee and tell the person waiting on you to tell the next person in line that the coffee is free and so is God's Grace.

These are just some of the ways that I will be trying to share the gospel of Jesus Christ more. Go for it and try it. It is easier then you think.

Church stop playing and start being!

May God use this song to stir in you a heart for those who are hurting. A heart for those who do not know Him. A heart for those in africa that have no water. THose in africa who are being thrown into war. THose in your city who may not have a christmas this year because they don't have the money . STOP PLAYING CHURCH AND START BEING THE CHURCH.

Social Media Revolution

This is a great video about social networking. I do not know about you but I do not think that this will go away. For some reason I am finding my self using facebook and twitter and google much more then I have before. My inbox in empty and the reason is I do a lot of tweeting, facebooking, and now google talk and I do not have to wait. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Thanks Jeff Allen for posting.

Hampel Family life story in a book.

As some of you may know I was in the circus for about 15 years and have traveled all over the country and have had many stories in my 28 years that one day I will place in a book but My father Dennis Hampel has taken many years to write a book that will be released some time in late October. It is called " When you life is like a circus". As soon as it goes up on amazon I will post a link. This book will move you but most important it I think it will open your eyes to how God interacts with us everyday and in everything that we do. May you be blessed by it.

The Spirit is not dead

Over the years that I have been following Jesus Christ I have heard and seen a lot of things. I have seen people that where had demons in them be healed. I have seen people speak in tongues the way that the bible talks about. My list can go on and on. One thing that I have seen as being reformed in my theology that there are many reformers that are afraid of the gifts. I saw John Piper talk about his thoughts here. I would agree and disagree with him on this. Some of the gifts you really do want to have them where everyone can see them and give God the full glory for what has happened.

If you have known me at all you may know that ,because of Benny Hinn and others, I never was very big on the gifts of the spirit. But after the last few months I have been turning around and God has been opening me up to the gifts. I will post more on this but here is what I would say to help you. one pray as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:27-30 seeking it and if God wants you to have it He will give it. The second is study what God's word says about some of the gifts and start to understand it more. I hope that this may help and remember that this is just some of my thoughts on this.

Spurgeon says it the best

If you know me at all you know that I love Charles Spurgeon. The way he said things were amazing. This is a quote from him about evangelism.

Evangelism' means essentially 'sharing the good news of Jesus Christ who died for our sins and rose again, with a view to making disciples and bringing them into the fellowship of the body of Christ.

So many people think that to evangelize means to get as many people as you can to pray a sinners prayer. It's not. True evangelism is when you walk with them and help them to grow as a follower of Jesus Christ. If that is what you are doing then you are on the right track. If not you may want to ask yourself the question are you about numbers or building the kingdom of God.