Jared S Flower

Thank you Bear Grylls.

2010-07-13T12:34:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-04-29T10:44:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-03-09T11:50:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-01-14T13:15:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-19T11:53:00.000-08:00

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."

2009-11-12T11:11:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-10-30T14:56:00.000-07:00

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.

Airplanes, Autumn, and Americanos.

2009-10-24T10:05:00.000-07:00

The world was once a big place. It took hundreds of years for explorers and navigators and adventurers to discover the corners of the earth and realize that there are no actual corners. Today we look at a world that is accessible. Easily traveled, and simply visited. I am sitting on an airplane right now, in my comfortable first class seat. ( I got upgraded for being a frequent flyer. One perk to flying to Africa twice in a year.)
As I recline my seat back and look out of the window a vast scape for as far as the eye can see captures my attention. It sparked this thought; “What a small world.” We hear this said whenever we meet a common friend, or an old acquaintance. The truth is, it is a small world. I am flying to Philadelphia, PA, which is in the complete opposite side of the Continental United States of America. It will take me five hours to fly completely across the country. This summer it took 19 hours to fly half way across the world. What I am trying to express is that we live in a different world. A world that is ripe for the harvest. A world that is set up for the deliverance of a message. With air travel, internet and other communication devices our effectiveness in ministry should be as cutting edge as that ridiculous super jet I just read about in the inflight magazine that flies from the US to England in three hours.
We have the resources, and everything that is necessary to accomplish the Commission. What a small world? What am I doing to affect this small world? Because, straight up it is so ready to be reached.

“The harvest is plentiful, the workers are few.”

I feel very harvesty, just had my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the year. Let autumn begin. Let the harvest begin!

Rendezvous for Nostalgia's Sake!

2009-10-15T09:26:00.001-07:00

When you grow up on the east coast, and in the tradition, liberalism and history that is New England you notice the differences from coast to coast. I lived in CT, MA, and PA for my entire life until this past year. Tread where the country was first formed and where faith first found it's identity is something that I do not take for granted. When I go back to the east from California I can sometimes feel the history and the difference in culture. The west coast is still young, new, and the struggle to find relevancy is far easier than on the east. (that is another days blog) There is no doubt that when friends from the east coast find themselves out here in my new region of the USA that I am going to definitely do my part to rendezvous.

I had a few friends who were making there way down the west coast on tour with their band and another band that we had all grown up listening to. It is funny how whenever old friends get together there is the initial catch up glances and pleasantries. After all the primary excitement, you fall back into the friendship as if no time had gone between your visits. (someone said, that is true friendship.) You find yourself sharing old stories about old memories or common friends. Essentially you are filling in the gaps that were created because of your lack of communication. I had the opportunity to spend two nights with my friends, here in Sacramento and again in San Francisco. Each night was different conversations and different memories shared. During it all new memories were made.

After my friends were done playing there set we found ourselves standing stage left, listening to our adolescent musical interest. Here I am, old friends, nostalgic music, and new memories, on a complete opposite coast from where we grew up.

I found myself not knowing any of the new music, but looking forward to the old songs being played. Ultimately, just like in my friendships it was my job to stay up to date on the new releases and singles by this band, otherwise I would be lost, like I was. With friendship it is the same, stay in touch, communicate, share stories and information on friends, be friends. I sometimes joke with friend who I haven't hung with in a while and say, "Hey let's be friends or something sometime soon."

The bottom line is this. For nostalgia's sake, make the extra effort to stay in touch with friends, so those gaps are smaller and smaller each time you rendezvous.

It's Wake Up Time.

2009-10-06T09:10:00.000-07:00

The faint distinction of sonar is going off in my head. No I am not underwater or watching the Hunt for Red October. It is my alarm clock. If you have an iphone you know the limited choice in tones. I roll over, debate hitting the snooze button or turn the alarm off and getting started with the day. I get up (thankfully) look out the window at the cold, dark, and quiet morning. It's wake up time.

It is an interesting process for humans, waking up that is. If you watch dogs, they simply get up and start running around, but humans need a good while to wake up, to clear their minds, open their eyes and get going. Every morning is quiet around the office. (I like my mornings quiet.) It is a good time to reflect and think, plan, and organize the day. None of these previously mentioned items can be accomplished while you are sleeping. Sleep is good for the renewal and refreshment of body and mind, very necessary. Yet from a performance stand point.....not the best. Knowing I will sleep over a third of my life away, is enough for me to get up and get going. (most mornings)

This principle parallels with all aspects of our lives. Some of us sleep too much, sleep walk, don't sleep enough, or day dream. Some of us walk through every routine of life with no real productivity or performance. The kid who sleeps in class or church, or the A student that simply goes through the motions just to pass and be eligible for sports. (that was me)

Regardless of how you look at it, we need to wake up. We can't be affective or productive in any way, if we are simply going through the motions and literally or figuratively sleeping our life away. It reminds me of my favorite verse:

Ephesians 5:14

For it is light that makes all things visible.

This is why it is said;

"Wake up of sleeper, let Christ's

light shine upon you."

I love how simple this verse is. We need to apply this to our lives, I need to apply this to my life. If we live with Christ, we are an alarm clock, we are light. We need to make it our mission to wake people up, to give them the opportunities to let Christ's light shine upon them. This is simply not happening if we are hitting the snooze button every day. Think about it, the easiest thing in the world is to hit the snooze button, it takes extra effort to wake up.

All too often we blame our lack of productivity and performance on not setting our alarm clock or our alarm clock not going off. How many times did you say this as a kid when you were late to school. "My alarm clock didn't go off." Please, we are responsible for our alarms not the other way around. No more "five more minutes mom," stuff. Time to wake up, time to share the light.

It is wake up time. (Also a very good Tom Petty song.)

Everybody likes Milk.

2009-09-17T15:42:00.000-07:00

Where the student ministries building is located, it allows me to walk past part of the pre-school campus of Capital Christian School. While walking through today I got to witness one of the things that I may miss most about being a kid. Milk/Nap time! At the same time everyday these kids get a carton of milk, shortly after this snack of vitamin fortified, calcium and mineral rich delight they get a rug square and a pillow and pass out for a half hour or so. Oh to be a kid again where we can sleep when we want to, and have milk served to us.

This milk/nap time spurred a thought in me. Why do they get milk? Why not apple juice or something else? If you take a look at milk it filled with vitamins a, d, b12, riboflavin, phosphorous, and of course calcium. All of these things combined are better than captain planet, they make the most nutrient dense natural substance in the world. Something we call, "Milk." Or you can pronounce it "melk" if you are from the Northeast.

Basically, milk promotes strong bones, growth and development, energy and movement. What a fantastic drink. It reminds me of eating dry cereal, and how it is pretty good, but when you add milk to it, the cereal becomes an amazing meal capable of being consumed for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, dessert, anything! Milk provides taste and draws out the taste in cereal. After all Milk is the mother of the wonderful american treat......ice cream!

1 Peter 2

¹Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. ²Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, ³now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

What a great passage to help understand the importance of our personal devotion to God on a daily basis. Just like milk that children drink, spiritual milk is important to the maturity, growth and development of us as women and men of God. My favorite part about all of this is the simple fact that we learn that the Lord tastes good. Kind like milk and cookies, except this milk has more than vitamin d and calcium, it has "vitamin holy spirit." Yes I just wrote that. ( I am middle school pastor)

It reminds me of a story. My brother Jordan used to love cookies and milk. Yet he had a problem with spill his glass right when he was about to enjoy his snack. The look on his face would say it all, disappointment. So sad, till my mother would with a fresh glass. Kid was excited to drink his milk! Just like Jordan we need to be excited about what we are putting into our soul, what we are feeding our mind with. What we are challenging our spirit with.

So very simply, with the same importance that we recognize in giving our children the vitamins and minerals and substance needed for their growth and development, we need to be applying to our spiritual growth and development. This being spiritual milk. Prayer, devotion, worship all milk. Whether you prefer, 1, 2, whole, skim, hemp, soy, yak, lactaid for the intolerant, or goat milk, it doesn't matter.

Drink some Milk!!!! "It does a body good."

TO THE TOP OF KILIMANJARO.

2009-09-14T19:25:00.000-07:00

"The journey began on June 26, 2009 when myself, Randy and 5 other climbers set out from Nairobi, Kenya to Moshii, Tanzania, on a 9 hour shuttle ride. The following day 2 Kenyans, 4 Americans , and one Canadian along with a team of porters and two guides started their ascent to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, also known as Kili. Kili is Africas tallest mountain, and the worlds largest free standing mountain, standing at over 19,200ft. The journey began in a rainforest, and ended atop a glacier, passing through moorlands and desert ecosystems, amongst many cliffs, steep walls and low valleys. We left for the summitt at 12am of the sixth day. With every ounce of energy and strength we pushed towards the goal of Uhuru Peak, the summit. It was an intense physical, emotional, mental and spiritual battle. With very little oxygen in the air, and frozen drinking water in our packs our group was victorious. We shared a prayer at the top and a few pictures before making our way back down the mountain. The severity of the conditions and hardship we endured was beyond ourselves. Randy said, "it was the hardest thing i have ever done." Our accomplishment was great but the cause we climbed for was better. The climb was in cooperation with the organization Dusty Feet, a non profit organization out of Nairobi, Kenya. The campaign was called "Conquer Kilimanjaro, Conquer Trafficking." It was designed to bring awareness to the problem of human trafficking in East africa. A documentary of the climb will be shown on Kenya National News later this summer, right before a informational news story on human trafficking and sex slavery. Overall it was a successful trip and every climber agreed that it was an experience of a lifetime, and the impact that we made was not only on our own lives, but on the issue of human trafficking in which we fought to bring awareness to. We conquered kili, now together we have to work to conquer human trafficking and sex slavery in all of the world. If you would like more information on Dusty Feet or would like to help the cause visit: www.hopestartsnow.com"

What I learned about Gossip.

2009-09-14T18:51:00.000-07:00

I am a very privileged person to not only be a part of a church staff where the team mentality is overwhelming but a church staff that truly inspires each other. Today I was sitting in church, in the front row where I like to sit. ( no i don't say that, because that makes me an awesome Christian, I just like the front row) I was listening to Rick Cole deliver a message on gossip, it hit home. Not so much that talking behind peoples backs, but he touched on a topic that I think all of us can relate to. Sometimes we talk about people, and that's ok, but sometimes we gossip. Basically it boils down to us being relational people, and it is natural to talk about our relationships. Yet it is very important to recognize in what way we are speaking about people. Pastor Rick gave us four questions to ask when somebody talks about someone else. He can offer way better insight on this topic, seeing that he spoke on it. So if you are interested you should definitely check out the latest message by clicking the picture below. Good stuff. I am certainly grateful that I can be inspired on a weekly basis at the church that I am a part of and while I am serving. The message should be up.