devotion
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Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
There’s something inside me that wants to go where someone says I’m not allowed to. I still remember the time when I was in my early teens and a local movie theatre had closed down. My friends and I spent many hours scheming how we might get inside and what we would do if we ever did. (I believe the consensus we came to would be the same of every teenage boy…hooking up a Nintendo 64 to the movie screen projector.) Some may call it being nosy, I just call it an extreme case of curiosity.
In Ezekiel 44, God is showing the prophet a vision of the new temple. In the midst of the vision, God begins to give Ezekiel some guidelines for the priests. Click to continue »
Posted in lessons learning | 3 Responses »
Tags: contemporary, devotion, devotions, ezekiel 44, fort wayne, lutheran, musician, nintendo 64, sweat, sweaty, worship
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
I used to live in an apartment close to downtown Fort Wayne. My roommate and I would frequently hold Bible studies with our friends in our small living room. One of our favorite things to do after the study was to engage in a rousing game of Bible Trivia. So in the spirit of random Biblical facts, I’d like to pose a question: Who was the first person mentioned in Scripture that was said to be filled with the Holy Spirit? It’s an interesting question that has an even more interesting answer. The man’s name is Bezalel.
Most of us have probably never heard a sermon preached about Bezalel; in fact most of us probably don’t even recognize his name. He wasn’t a great prophet or a mighty judge. He wasn’t a grand king or one of David’s Mighty Men. He wasn’t a High Priest or one of the Patriarch of our faith. Bezalel was an artist. Click to continue »
Posted in expressions | 3 Responses »
Tags: artist, bezalel, church, contemporary, devotion, devotions, fort wayne, heaven, lutheran, musician, tabernacle
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
I am in a season of transition. I have just resigned my position at come2go ministries in Fort Wayne, IN and I am getting ready to enter into something new. I just don’t know what the “new” thing is yet. It’s like I’m 2 steps away from a hard right hand turn. I know I have to make the turn to stay on the path, but I have no idea what’s around the corner.
I am also in a season of discernment, which almost always comes with transition. I’ve been thinking and praying a lot about God’s ultimate purpose for my life. I’ve always lived with a strong sense of destiny. I know that I am created for a purpose that I’m uniquely prepared for in giftings, talents, personality, experience & passions. I have something inside that drives me towards accomplishing that which I was created for. There have been seasons in my life where I thought I knew what that purpose was. But I’ve never felt the intense longing I do now to hear from God about it. I’m ready for the hard right hand turn.
We have many Biblical examples of people who knew their purpose. To me the greatest example, besides Jesus, was John the Baptist. John may have been obscure, living in the desert with weird clothing and a weird diet, but he was famous. Mark 1 says “the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him”; John the Baptist was a household name. Click to continue »
Posted in lessons learning | 7 Responses »
Tags: body, contemporary, destiny, devotion, devotions, fitting in, fort wayne, lutheran, musician, purpose, worship
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
Bethany and I recently attended a conference at Morningstar Ministries in Fort Mill, South Carolina called Worship & Warfare. Morningstar is one of my favorite places to go. Not only are the teaching & worship times incredible, but everywhere you turn people are praying & ministering to each other. It’s an atmosphere that is spiritually electric.
The conference was 3 days long with the majority of the sessions dedicated to extended times of worship. It was wonderful to be with so many people who were passionately pressing into God. I had many wonderful moments in God’s Presence during the main sessions, but nothing like what happened in a lounge area in between sessions. Click to continue »
Posted in lessons learning | 3 Responses »
Tags: contemporary, devotion, devotions, fort wayne, god's presence, lutheran, morningstar, musician, presence, worship
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
I go running a few times a week. Lately, I’ve been going on a path around the YMCA on the north side of Fort Wayne. I normally run 2 laps, which turns out to be a little more than 3 miles. A few days ago Bethany and I had to drop one of our cars off at the shop. After taking her to work, I decided to go for my run while I was waiting on an estimate. Since I never run with my phone, I decided I would just check in with the shop after I finished my run.
I felt really good as I was finishing my first lap. Sometimes I really have to convince myself to push through and finish well, but it was a beautiful day outside and I was really enjoying the podcast I was listening to so there was no “breakthrough” necessary. Just as I was starting my second lap, a complete & random thought entered my mind. It was something like: “If you want to catch the phone call from the shop, you should stop your run.” It caught me off guard because I wasn’t thinking about the car and I wanted to continue my run. I’ve been learning over the last few years that one of the ways God communicates with me is through complete & random thoughts; often the opposite of what I want to do. I continued running for about 10-15 seconds until I decided to listen, stop my run & go to my phone.
I casually walked back to my car and saw that I had 1 missed call. As I was opening my phone to see who it was from, my phone vibrated to let me know that someone had just left me a message. It was the car shop. I had literally missed their call by 10-15 seconds. Click to continue »
Posted in lessons learning | 9 Responses »
Tags: contemporary, devotion, devotions, fort wayne, god's voice, listen, lutheran, musician, speak, worship
Thursday, June 11th, 2009
This past week I was asked to provide some worship music for a large Lutheran convention at the Grand Wayne Center. Besides a few songs that a few friends and I led at the beginning, the service was very traditional. It’s been a few years since I’ve participated in a traditional worship service. Even though I grew up with liturgical worship, I have to admit that it was difficult for me to stay engaged when everything I was supposed to say or pray was already planned and printed.
Responsive readings were read. Hymns were sung. A passage from the Old Testament was read followed by one from the Epistles. Then it came time for the Gospel reading. The Pastor who was preaching that evening came up to read the account of the disciples encountering Jesus on the Road to Emmaus in Luke 24. As he began to share the account, the room of 700+ people became whisper-quiet. He spoke the Word of God with an authentic intensity & with passion. My heart was so moved by the way this Pastor spoke the Word. It was gripping my spirit. And it had grabbed the complete attention of the whole room. Click to continue »
Posted in Jesus = Awesome | 2 Responses »
Tags: contemporary, devotion, devotions, fort wayne, lamp, lampstand, lutheran, musician, tabernacle, worship
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
I hate mowing the lawn. Actually, “hate” isn’t a strong enough word for how I feel. When Bethany and I got married 6 years ago, we bought a cute house with a postage-stamp size lawn. Even though it only took me 20 minutes to mow, I despised every second of it. We bought our second house in Virginia, which had a lawn about 2 times the size of our previous one. Those 40 minutes were the worst ones of my week (or my month when I was too lazy). Then we moved back to Fort Wayne and bought a house with a half-acre lot. I assume by now you can imagine how I feel about mowing a lawn that size.
One day, while I was in the middle of mowing our half-acre lot with a $125 push mower (not even a walk-behind mind you), I convinced myself that it was worth the investment to buy a riding mower. Practically everyone on our street & in our neighborhood had one and I reasoned it would save me tons of time & bellyaching. Bethany was even onboard with the purchase, which was a miracle in itself.
A few weeks later, I was mowing the lawn again with my push mower with a new found excitement knowing that this might be one of the last times I had to suffer through this horrible chore. I still remember where I was when the revelation hit me. I was about half way through mowing the back yard when I realized that mowing the lawn was the only thing in my life that I didn’t enjoy. I loved my job, my house, my wife, my car, even my in-laws! In a deeper way I realized how many blessings God had given me. And here I was reasoning that I could spend my way out of the only annoying thing in my life at that time. I suddenly realized that I didn’t need a bigger, better, faster lawnmower, I needed to have something in my life that I hated to do. And I needed to find joy in doing it. Click to continue »
Posted in lessons learning | 7 Responses »
Tags: contemporary, devotion, devotions, fort wayne, lawnmower, lutheran, musician, worship
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
I still remember the day when I first experienced Nintendo. I was just a little kid, probably 6 or 7 years old, when my neighbor invited me over for a surprise. It seemed like an eternity as I waited in his basement for the announcement to come upstairs and see what the big surprise was. The time finally came. I ran up the stairs and my eyes settled on the TV in the family room. What was on the screen was one of the most wonderful & magical things I had ever seen in my 6 (or 7) years of life; Super Mario Brothers.
It took a while before my neighbor surrendered the controller so I could play. But when he finally handed it over to me, I began to try to figure what each button did – the “A” button and the “B” button.
Fast forward 20 years. Video games have come a long way! The era of the two-button controller has ended. Now some of the controllers have more buttons, knobs & joysticks than my car. (I just realized that I sound like I’m getting old… “Back when I was your age…”) I don’t play video games that often anymore except for the occasional game of Mario Kart with my brothers-in-law. When we do sit down to play, something in me misses the simplicity of the two-button era. Click to continue »
Posted in lessons learning | 2 Responses »
Tags: contemporary, controller, devotion, devotions, fort wayne, lutheran, musician, nintendo, simplicity, super mario brothers, worship
Thursday, May 7th, 2009
A couple weeks ago Bethany and I took a vacation to Hawaii. In preparation for our trip I decided to get the finest pair of sunglasses that $5 could buy. They were kind of big and awkward, but for the price of a Value Meal at McDonald’s I can’t complain – or in Hawaii that would be the price of a small fry. Our little travel book told us that on the island of Oahu (where we were staying) we should check out the North Shore for some beautiful beaches. So one afternoon we jumped in our rental car and started the drive. The scenery was spectacular; the sun was shining, the water was sparkling and there were beautiful plants everywhere. As we were approaching the North Shore we drove up a hill that gave us a postcard view of the beach. It was breath taking. The colors were so rich and bright! Immediately I was in awe of how beautiful God’s creation is.
After those brief moments of awe, I remembered that I was wearing my sunglasses. I immediately took them and was amazed. What seemed like the most colorful & vibrant view I had ever seen paled in comparison to what it looked like now. The colors were richer, the sun was brighter & the whole landscape looked more alive. Same scene. Same view. Just no sunglasses. Click to continue »
Posted in Jesus = Awesome, lessons learning | 5 Responses »
Tags: contemporary, devotion, fort wayne, Hawaii, lutheran, Moses, musician, Oahu, sunglasses, worship
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
Jamie Sullivan, a good friend of mine, recently wrote a devotion for some of the women in our church. Her writing touched my heart deeply. That being the case (and with her permission of course), I decided to use the “copy & paste” method of writing this week. I pray you are touched by her writing as well. Be sure to check out Jamie’s blog for more of her thoughts.
The woman written of in the gospels who anointed our Savior was just an ordinary woman. However, her expression of love is legendary.
When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.” Luke 7:37-38
This scene painted in Luke 7:37-38 (see also Matthew 26:1-16, Mark 14:1-12 & John 12:1-11) awakens a feeling in me, best described as “gently radical.”
During this time in history women kept their hair pinned up. Paul even goes so far to say in one Epistle that a woman’s glory is her hair. Yet, humbly she departed from the culturally accepted thing, took her hair down and used “her glory” to serve Him tenderly. Click to continue »
Posted in Jesus = Awesome, expressions | 2 Responses »
Tags: alabaster, anoint, contemporary, devotion, fort wayne, hair, lutheran, musician, perfume, worship
There’s something inside me that wants to go where someone says I’m not allowed to. I still remember the time when I was in my early teens and a local movie theatre had closed down. My friends and I spent many hours scheming how we might get inside and what we would do if we ever did. (I believe the consensus we came to would be the same of every teenage boy…hooking up a Nintendo 64 to the movie screen projector.) Some may call it being nosy, I just call it an extreme case of curiosity.