Tech and God.

Over the past few weeks and even days I have been doing a lot of thinking and praying about this short of thing. Is my phone taken over my extra time I could be spending with my Father? The answer has been yes. As some of you may know I do not update my twitter and facebook as much. The reason is that I was wasting so much time on that junk. I look over those I follow here and there but I do not just waste time updating to be updating. I have seen pastors over the past few months not bring there bibles to the pulpit anymore. They bring there cool ipad or iphone and preach from it.

Fellow brothers and sisters in Christ over the next few days I put a challenge out to you to put your phone and ipad and so on to the side and pick up your bible or just sit and listen to God. Call it a fast. This is not easy but we all need to do it.

Thanks to Aaron over at Blogging Theologically for a post with the video and getting me thinking even more.

A Mom's pride.

I am sitting here in my office reading Matthew 20:17-21 and can not believe what I am seeing. Jesus is talking about Him being betrayed and crucified and that He will return in three days from the dead and the first thoughts of the mother of Zebedee's son's was OK Jesus that is fine and all but make sure my sons sit with you in heaven.

Sometimes in our lives we can become so full of pride that there is no way to see our own sin. We are all ,sadly, full of pride and self but if you truly come to the cross and want to be humbled by it your pride will start to melt away. It takes years for it all to fall away but by the grace of God He helps us every step of the way.

The other sad thing is that as I read this story I can see my self in her shoes. Here Jesus is painting the bigger picture and all she sees is her own little world. We as called to be people that are kingdom focused and not self focused. So may we all pray for this to happen in our own lives as well as for those around.

Keep your facebook post to your self.

Over the past year I have seen how facebook is good and also how it is bad. Let me first put out there the good of facebook.

1) Facebook is good to reconnect with old friends

2) Facebook is good to spread the gospel.

3) Facebook is good to know what other people are thinking about things.

4) Facebook is good to post funny videos.

Now let me share with you why Facebook is bad.

1) Facebook is bad because you can reconnect with old "flings"

2) Facebook is bad because there is ,at times, to much openness.

3) Facebook is bad because you can share to much about what is on your mind.

4) Facebook is bad because it can hurt people.

I want to hit on this last part for a little bit. Facebook is bad because it can hurt people. Over the past year our so I have seen and heard how people in churches us Facebook to hurt people. They use it to slander people and because of that I have seen churches ripped apart. When it comes to posting thing on Facebook you really should keep in mind the thought of "if you can not say anything nice do not say anything at all". Now as I write this I know that I have ,at times, not followed this. However God has been doing a lot of work in me the last few months and this is one thing that I have watched at times.

So what are you using Facebook for? Are you using it for one of the good or is your reason on the bad list?

Short and sweet

So the other day I was looking at my twitter and saw a post from a youth pastor that said "didn't have time to finish my sermon tonight for youth so going to let the kids cut my hear instead". WOW really dude.

When I read this I got pretty upset. When I look at some of the old dead pastors that I read and some of the pastors today that I look up to they all put a high standard on preaching. They put writing there sermons up there before anything. Paul himself tells us to let the deacons worry about the other things so that you can put your time into teaching the truth rightly.

This is one of the things that I feel is wrong with youth ministry today. So many youth leaders just get by by playing games and feeding students pizza and not teaching God's word. I feel that if you do not have time to study God's word so that you can teach it then it is not effecting your own life so why should it effect others.

Well my rant is over now. You can go back to doing whatever you are doing.

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.

What a Day.

So today was such a cool day. Kim and I went to the doctors and heard baby Hampel's heart beat. WOW you wanna talk about being amazing by God just do that. I am really looking forward to the day that I get to hold my child in my arms. June 16th 2011 that should happen but until then all I can do is pray for my child and keep kissing it through Kim's belly. :) I like that part just don't tell her LOL.

There is one more thing that I am doing and wow it is so cool. This past February I went to the desiring God pastors retreat and they gave us a book with a bunch of blank pages in it and it says romans down the side. We are suppose to write out the book of romans for us to study but I am writing the whole book of Romans and one day give it to our first born. On days that I write and something happens, like today, I write at the top of the page the date and what happened. So I am really looking forward to leading my son or daughter to know the Lord Jesus Christ.

Write it down.

As some of you know I journal. I do not do it as much as I should but I do and when I do it I love it. Today I was reading a blog post on Purifying Grace and they gave some helpful tips for journaling that I would like to pass on to you..

"First before I discuss the what of journaling, let me first talk about the length of journaling. This weekend my wife and I were briefly discussing journaling, and she was encouraging me to journal as she knows how difficult it is for me. Then she mentioned that I should just journal every time I commit to no matter what I write, even if it is just, “I hate journaling and I don’t feel like journaling today.” Simply the point is to write something down on paper.Now there are six basic questions that can be answered extremely quickly or even for the over-achiever, elaborately. They are FAST VG!

1. Feelings: What feelings did I experience today and/or have right now?
2. Acting Out: What, if any, acting out did you do today?
3. Struggles: What struggles did you experience today?
4. Temptations: What temptations did you experience today?
5. Victories: What victories, no matter how small, did you experience today?
6. God: How did you see God (or your higher power) working in your life today?

These questions can be answered in a wide variety of ways. Feelings are feelings, and they are as fickle as the weather. However, it is good to have a record to begin to see patterns of behavior. Acting out can look differently every day. I personally including any ritual behaviors or preoccupational thinking here too. Struggles I often relate to life, and sometimes to my faulty thinking. Temptations are my triggers. Victories are anything from pushing a thought out of my head to turning off the laptop to walking away to calling someone etc. I typically answer #1, #2-4 altogether with each event that I discuss, #5 and then #6. #6 has been more difficult for me than I expected; however, it is getting easier.So what about you? What do you use to journal?"

I hope that this helps you and let me say go now grab a journal and start today writing. It helps me and I know that you will be blessed by it.

What's important?

As some of you may know I just got back from my vacation with my wife and we had a great time. As soon as we got back I felt God telling me that things are going to be changing and they are changing very fast. As thing are changing I can feel that I am getting out of control. I am becoming a very busy person but my focus is not right. Even though my focus is on God and then my wife both of them need more focus from me.

This starts to make me think. Pastors we can get to busy at times and say we are focused on things but we say it so much that it feels like we are but we really are not. Paul tells timothy to watch your life and I am sorry to say that I have not been watching like I should have been. I think that if you are real with your self you will most likely say the same thing. Stop the habits in your life that take you away from what really matters. I just thought that I would share this with you and may it bless you and your walk with Him.

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.

What to Do?

So my wife is gone for work this week and I have been thinking a little bit about time. Charles Spurgeon never had a watch because he didn't want time to get in the way. I was thinking kind of the same thing today and looking at my week. We all the same 24 hours but we all use them in a different way. Sometimes pastors can work all day and all night and plus more. For some reason pastors think that they have to always keep going but at the same time there families are dying and so are they. Pastors if you are dying then so does your family and then the church that God has called you to lead and serve.

On your phone there is this thing called a calendar. What you need to do is take it out and put your time with God in it and then Family time and then you ministry. Don't ever put your church before you and or your family. Well men I pray that you will take this to heart and work on your time management.