Thank you Bear Grylls.

Thank you Bear Grylls.

This past Saturday I decided to do a solo climb. Nothing spectacular or too challenging. In fact it was a climb I had done 4 previous times to much avail.

Pyramid Peak is the Alpha Peak in the Californian Desolation Wilderness. I took my time ascending to the summit, rested for a bit, signed the register, then started to make my way down.

After about an hour of descending I realized I took my eyes off the trail markers for about 2 minutes. 2 Minutes is all it took. I should have kept my bearings, but instead I thought I would trust my experience and intuition, keeping a specific ridge on my right and stream on my left.

I was correct in doing so, but hugged the ridge on my right too closely. I ended up far off course. I continued to keep a south bearing on my compass, knowing at some point I would reach the road that I drove in on, now 5 hours earlier.

I had left the summit at around 3pm and watched as my daylight seemingly diminished. I should have been down, off, and on my way home by this point. I remembered a few Man vs Wild episodes where Bear Grylls was adamant about staying calm and coming to grips with the fact that you are lost. I was lost, and I had to remain calm and remind myself of this simple lesson numerous times.

The further I went, the closer I got to the road. I could see cars moving below me, but between me and my goal was sheer cliffs, rhododendron growth up to my shoulders, and slippery wet rock. This was going to take some determination, smarts and skill to get down. Stopping every five minutes to plan my next 100 feet of descent was getting crazy, traversing backwards, free climbing. It was fun at times, and other times it was utter torture as flesh from my legs was being ripped by the growth I was trying to forge through.

The closer I got to the road the easier the terrain became until I was free. I was out. I ran to the road with my hands up, yelling. Cars drove by looking at me as if I were mad. Then I realized my car was parked 4 miles east of where I came off the mountain. I finally got back to my car at 8:30pm. 5.5 hours after I left the summit.

Two minutes of distractions added 4.5 hours and 4 miles of punishment. What I learned is this. Even if you find yourself off the path, away from anything that guides or directs, it isn't too late. Your surroundings may seemingly close in on you, it may seem impossible to maneuver, but if you press on, you will meet your goal. It will take some serious extra effort and drive, but it is attainable. Keep your eyes on the ultimate goal. Getting out of the wilderness.

Reminds me of a group of Israelites, who got distracted. Took their eyes off the goal and put it on themselves.

Thanks Bear.

ONE SONG.

I am completely in awe of what is capable when people are truly united in cause, purpose, voice, and hearing. Last night we concluded our two week UNITED series. Our high school and junior high groups were combined for two services. It is not the first time that we have done this, just the best. Everyone agreed that something was different about these two weeks, the atmosphere, the presence, the vibe, whatever you want to call it. It was truly amazing. Before each service we prayed that we would truly be unified, united as one voice, singing one song to God.

We learn of unified voices in the Word of God. Jericho's walls crumbled when all lifted up a noise together in unity. The power of voice, of unified voice is no different today. It was proven last night and last week. God wishes us to be together to be one with him, his church, his children. Gosh this youth group hangover is the best one I have ever had!

Psalm 133:1

1 How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!

LISTEN TO THIS:

"ONE SONG" - REVOLUTION YOUTH

LIVE TOGETHER OR DIE ALONE.

Lessons from ze Pinscher.

This is my puppy. Costner. Yes named after the greatest actor ever, Kevin. Costner is a 13 week old Mini Pinscher. He is a goofy little guy always wanted to play or run around. I learned quickly that his priorities in life consist of Playing, Eating, Sleeping, and of course releasing his waste all over my house. It is funny, how instinctual dogs are. They can feed off your energy. They know when you are mad, happy or tired. In regards to their priorities in life, if one of them is missing then they won't be happy. Sad Puppy. If they have a balance of all of the above mentioned priorities or needs then they are happy and love life.

It may seemingly be a stretch to grab some sort of spiritual relevancy from a puppy. Yet I am reminded of my own priorities. My life accounts, what I need to be happy, and what is required for me to perform highly in this thing called life.

I need friends, family, God, entertainment, sustenance etc, etc. It is interesting, when I am missing one of these elements to my life, I act like a sad puppy. Life isn't as efficient, almost like I am running on one leg. When all of the priorities are in order, I am happy. It is a simple principle to understand but harder to put into practice.

When we are hungry we eat, when we are bored we chill with friends and family, when we are thirsty we drink. How come when we are spiritually weak, it is so hard for us to swallow our pride and humble ourselves before God? It seems the most important priority in our lives is often times the most difficult to keep in order. Probably because so much is hinged upon our attempted success in this area.

"Don't keep worrying about having something to eat or drink ... But put God's work first, and these things will be yours as well" (Luke 12:29,31, CEV).

PS. I blog for myself, to get my thoughts down, not because I am really really ridiculously intelligent and full of myself.

PLUSES AND MINUSES.

How beneficial it is to the person who can learn to take the positive with the negative. Or as this blog is titled; the pluses with the minuses. It seems that with every emotion we experience throughout our lifetime there is a reciprocating situation that would give us the excuse to revert. With almost every positive thing that happens, negative somehow finds a way to peek around the corner and creep into our lives. We have to be ready for this.

Knowing that you cannot live on a spiritual, or emotional high, the balance of emotions is only natural. There will be bad things and good things. It is truly an elementary principle at it's essence. Good and bad, light and dark, so and so forth. Each one of these things wouldn't be the same without the other.

We have all heard the sayings like; "joy wouldn't feel so good if it wasn't for pain." You can pretty much insert whatever reciprocating terms you would like and it becomes truth. It is because they cannot exist without each other. knowing this and keeping this in mind shouldn't spur to live our lives through a negative lens per say. In which we don't enjoy the good things in life because we know negative is on its way. Rather, we should live out each experience focusing on the positive of each situation. With every negative thing we can take some positive, it gives us opportunity to work harder, to bind together, to cast new vision, and to experience life in a seasoned fashion.

Last night at our 678 Junior High mid week service, we had a great time. It was our second week since we came back from break, and numbers hit the mark, worship was great, and 12 students even had the opportunity to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ. That is something to be excited about for sure. There was electricity in the room, everyone was excited and already can't wait for next week. So with all of this positive that happened last night of course negative is gonna try and overtake my mind. A few unfortunate but necessary decisions were made today in the office that will affect a few elements of 678 J High ministry. Initially my ridiculous flesh wanted to be angry, to tell someone off without any right to. It is almost as if our flesh wants us to be negative, our humanity wants us to dwell on the minuses. It is amazing to see how God used this situation to say to me, " it's not about you." It is isn't about me.

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” - Winston Churchill

Bottom line is this. With every positive there is negative. With every negative there is positive. Glass half empty half full jargon. Remember that old saying. Well, it couldn't be more true. Use the negative situations in life to be positive. Stop living with all the minuses and be one of those plus people.

Read 1 Peter.

The Bible gives us a great example of someone dwelling on the negative. A person who is dining with friends saying eat, drink, be happy, and all that jazz, but all he is thinking about is the bill. Instead he could be thinking about the fun and fellowship as we call it in the church.

Proverbs 23:7 "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he."

Nobody likes a negative person.

MIRACLE MAKER.

So often we think about miracles and healing, or people being delivered from life threatening situations or even redemption as this far off ethereal principle that is only in the past or a story in the Bible.

I literally just got done preaching to our Middle School students at their morning chapel. It was amazing to see the response. It is always cool when as a preacher you have revelation in the middle of your message. In fact it has been a while since I have felt this way in the middle of my delivery. My realization is that there is so much power in our God.

Reading the story of the Dead Girl and Sick Woman. Where Jesus goes to raise some girl from the dead as if she was sleeping, and on the way a woman is healed by touching his clothes. For real, is their really this much healing and living power flowing out of this guy? It is truly amazing to think about.

The Bible is full of stories of deliverance and redemption, healing and miracles. The same Jesus that performed miracles, the same God that delivered Daniel from the mouths of hungry lions wants to redeem us, and our mess ups, hang ups, habits, hurts, sickness, pain, doubt, self pity, depression, etc...etc.. The bottom line is it doesn't matter what the deal is, what it is we need help with, God's power is so great and by the Blood of the Son we have true healing and true life.

I am writing this blog on a spiritual buzz right now, so forgive any rambling, but I am so excited. Excited that I worship a God that is capable of everything. That I worship a God that answers prayer, because HE DOES. He is in the business of the miraculous. We need to grasp that, when we pray with faith, when we ask in His name, that the answer is on the way. Thank Him for what He has done, and is about to do, and pray for peace and patience while we wait for that answer.

We often wonder why healing and miracles are not as widespread in our country as others. It is not that God is more powerful there, but that the people have more faith. Yes I just wrote that. They have more faith. So many times we see that God moves the most with the people that have the least. They have less to rely on, to turn to and less things to try to resolve their problems with. They put their faith in God as opposed to man, and in reward for that their prayers are answered.

I want to fully rely on Him, everyday. I want to live a life of true faith, walk it out daily. I want to see the miraculous in my life.

In the chapel service this morning, I read stories from the Bible of healing and deliverance but ended with a modern story of a Doctor. He wasn't a believer, but heard the voice of God when he was standing next to a stretcher of dead man that was being prepared to be sent to the morgue.

The Holy Spirit told him to pray for him. He said; "Lord Father, how am I going to pray for this man? He's dead. What can I do? Father, God, I cry out for the soul of this man if he does not know You as his Lord and Savior, please raise him from the dead right now in Jesus name."

Guess what happened next. Beep. Heartbeat, wiggle of toes, mumble of words, oh raised from the dead!

The nurse asked him what he did. He simply said; "I cried out for his soul in Jesus' name."

Simple. Faith. Ask. Miracle.

We know what HE can do, it is time we start letting him.

"Entitled Entitlement."

Someday I will write a book on this. Probably when I feel like I have a better grasp on it myself. Entitlement, what is it, why does it happen?

It is almost a humanity issue. Something that is bore into us from the start of our selfish lives. I deserve life, I deserve this, that etc...etc.. When I look at the word deserve, you see de-serve. You know I am not one to normally pick apart words and try to find other meanings and what not, but to me it looks like the word de-serve is the opposite of serve, which is what we should be doing everyday. When we act as if we deserve something than we are doing the opposite of helping others.

You can see it so much in today's world. In society people want recognition for their acts of kindness and charity. Or even the person who takes up two parking spots, because they have a nice car of course. Line cutters, ice cream sample abusers, whatever it is, it is everywhere. In the church people want to be paid back, or given a "position" to do volunteer work. This simple statement brings two stories to mind. The first is that of a celebrity who made sure that there was enough media attention around before they gave money to an organization. Wow, what is charity if we are only concerned with what we get out of it, or if people know about it? True charity is doing things without people knowing about it. Whatever happened to anonymity? Don't get me wrong, there is nothing terrible about reaping what you sow or receiving an award for your philanthropy, but when it is expected we have to examine the attitude of the giving in the first place.

The second story that is brought to the forefront of my mind is one that is set in the church. Not only is it ridiculously hard to find volunteers these days without feeding them or giving them a tee shirt for their "sacrifice," but there is sense of entitlement that has taken over people. I can recall a few years ago, there was a group of us helping out a pastor in preparation for a trip. After we had unloaded various sound, and video, and music equipment into our chapel, the ones who stood around and did the least amount work were the ones asking for lunch. They said to the youth pastor, "you owe us." It is funny to look back at, because it brings to light the conception that we are entitled to rewards for doing nice things. "The harvest is plentiful, the workers are few," but only if we pay them?!

I am guilty of this conception as well. I have had the thought of, "I deserve a day off, because I worked on a holiday," or "I should be recognized for this nice thing I did." It happens to the best of us. We are selfish beings wanting only to fulfill the needs and desires of our own flesh or minds. True sacrificers, philanthropists, givers, servants or whatever term you would like to use may not be recognized every time, but those things aren't important to them. It is the task at hand that matters. The cause before the reward. I think that we should try to do things under the radar.

Do enough good things and people will notice eventually and you might even be rewarded for it at some point. Never let your focus be on the reward. We are not entitled to anything, we don't even deserve to live. We are given this privilege and should spend every day trying to pay the world back with our love and sacrifice. Instead of putting our hands out for what we get, let us put our hands up and volunteer, sacrifice and help with a joyful heart. It's hard but we can do it.

Here is something for us all to think about;

Mark 10:21

"Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

Yikes.

Every Day is a new day.

Welp, this will be a short one. One thing that occurred to me, is that whenever you feel like you are in a rut or falling into the collapses of routine it is easy to breakout by getting back to the basics. I am a person that loves to get my hands dirty. Paint, wood, sawdust, screwdrivers, i am in my element when i have a pencil behind my ear. I was feeling a little too routinish until I started a little project, a blue collared project. It is funny how getting back to the basics, and doing such an organic task will help you realize and re-reveal your vision and directions. Sweetness.