Life on Snow Hill

Hebrews 10:25:

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

Speaks for itself, right? I don’t believe I have ever met a church member that doesn’t know this verse by heart. Maybe I should say we all know it by memory. If we really knew it by heart, we might actually put it into more practice.

Fair warning – I’m telling the truth here. If you’re easily offended by blunt, honest truth, stop reading.

Yes, I’m going there. Church attendance. It seems to be the first thing that many people choose to forego when they need a day to do something fun. It appears to be the least important thing in many people’s lives, as they choose movies, ballgames (Yes, I went there, too), voluntary overtime, fishing, hunting…(shall I continue?) over church attendance.

My first reaction to this is to get angry. I’m working on this. But I get angry because these people know better. They’ve been taught the truth and know what’s right. They know not to skip church, but they do it anyway. It makes me want to grab ‘em by the shoulders and say, “Don’t you see what you’re doing??”

But then I think a little deeper about it. It has begun to break my heart. The anger isn’t as strong as it used to be, and here’s why. When someone can be at church and he or she makes a choice not to be there (circumstances completely within their control), I believe that person is responsible for and will be accountable for the truth that they would have heard had they been where they were supposed to be. They are hurting themselves eternally, and yet they can’t see it. My heart breaks for them. Mostly because I can’t do anything about it. I pray for them, and tell them the truth when I have the opportunity. But the choice is up to them.

What is more important? Seeing a movie that will be playing for weeks to come, yet has no spiritual significance and no eternal impact? Bouncing a ball up and down a floor that has a basket on each end that you try to throw that ball into? Catching the biggest fish? I’ve just picked a few of the most popular ‘excuses’. Insert your own here. Are these more important than the eternal impact that good, Bible preaching will have on your life? I think not…

God help us all to place the importance we should on meeting together in a good, Bible believing church to hear the man of God preach His Word.

Wow, it’s been nearly 3 weeks since I’ve posted anything! I’ve severely neglected my blog. It’s not like I don’t want to keep it up to date – I’ve actually been pretty busy.

One thing I’ve been working on is a social website for Christians. It is still in its infancy right now. I’m getting some help from a group, mostly from my church, to get things set up for it, select a name as well as the initial features the site should have. My goal is to have all of that finished before it goes live and is opened up to the rest of the ‘world’. Hopefully it will be ready within another couple of weeks. Stay tuned for an update.

This month has been Youth Month at our church. So far, I’ve had the privilege to preach twice. We’ve had two Youth Sundays, and I’ve preached both Sunday mornings. We also had Benjamin Cooley for the first one, and Jeremiah Cooley for the second. For those of you who don’t know them, they are twin brothers who are great young men that serve God. We also had Seth Stewart from Redemption Baptist Church. He is 13 years old and has announced his call to preach. They all 3 did a great job and preached messages that encouraged, strengthened and charged me.

I look forward to this Sunday, when Breaking Ground will be with us. They are a group of young men (The oldest is 26 I believe) who sing bluegrass Gospel music and preach. One of their wives also sings with the group. All of the guys preach, and preach well. I’m looking forward to all of it.

We’re also having a youth revival the week of March 1st through the 5th. Nick Sorrell and myself will be preaching that revival. We’re looking for the Lord to do some great things in all our hearts and lives.

So again, this has been a busy month, and it isn’t quite over yet. I’ll do my best to keep this blog updated a little better so that you, my loyal readers, will have something to read.

Today’s daily verse is Philippians 4:8 – Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Every once in a while, I run across someone who simply wants to twist the Scripture to make it fit his or her lifestyle. Some try to use it to flaunt their ’super-Spirituality’ and highly educated self. Some totally ignore it so they can do the things they want and feel no conviction for it.

Some do all three.

This morning I was thinking about some of them. When I do that, I usually find myself getting angry and not fit for much for a while. Then I thought to myself, “Today is Sunday. I should be at my very best today.” Not that I should be any different today than I am any other day of the week – I certainly shouldn’t. I should live life the same every single day. I should be the same person every single day, whether it’s a Thursday, a Monday, or, yes, Sunday.

My point is, today is the Lord’s day, and I should find myself extra careful to keep my focus on the things of the Lord. Dare I say, the devil may try extra hard to get us off track on Sunday? Sure he does.

That’s when God reminded me of today’s verse – think on these things. Don’t worry about those other people. Stand for truth, for sure, but think on these things.

One small disclaimer. I couldn’t put the entire verse in my twitter status because I only get 140 characters. I’m not trying to change anything about what it says – promise!

I’ve severely neglected my blog again. I’m not going to keep much of a following that way, now am I? I’ve decided to try to do something about it. This something will serve two purposes for me.

1. My Bible reading and study habits will benefit. I’m taking other steps to improve this area of my life, as part of somewhat of a New Year’s resolution. But this will help to further that purpose in my life.
2. I’ll at least have something here daily. If it’s nothing more than a twitter update. Yes, that’s how I plan to post my daily verses, at least to begin with. If I feel compelled to expound on the verse, I’ll post about it here in my blog.

Today’s verse, that you should see over in the right column over there, is a large part of my motivation. Here’s why.

For the past few months, I’ve been realizing more and more that I don’t study like I should. I don’t read God’s Word like I should. I spoke to Becky about it a little, and told her what I’d been thinking about doing to improve this. She agreed that it would be a good thing to do. I thought about it a little more and decided that’s what I would do.

What’s that, you may ask? A way to help me improve my study habits in the Bible. A specific way to commit myself to it. I’m being purposely vague. I’m sorry, but that’s all you’re getting out of me. For now. Maybe later.

In church last Sunday Morning, the pastor read a verse as sort of a sideline thought to his main message. That was the one I needed. It not only confirmed in my heart that I was committing to do exactly what I should, but it took it even farther and revealed to me that if I am going to benefit at all, and if I’m to learn anything at all out of the study I’m committing myself to doing, it’s going to come from God.

I know, it’s a really simple thought, right? But it was a revelation to me when it hit me. Not only do I need to improve in my study life, but in my prayer life as well. I can read the Bible until I’m blue in the face, but if I don’t have God’s help in giving me the wisdom and understanding for what I’m reading, it will benefit me little.

To my Christian friends and readers, I desire your prayers. First, so that I get and keep the determination I need to keep at it. I don’t expect to take a step for God and not get resistance from, at the very least, my old nature. Second, so that it will actually benefit me. I don’t expect to study God’s Word and  get nothing from it. But I want all I can get. It’s one thing I feel like I can be selfish about. The thing is, God is big enough to do the same thing for anybody and everybody else that wants it, so I guess it isn’t really all that selfish.

As I’m sure most people are this time of year, Becky and I have been busy. Becky has had most of the responsibilities for taking care of the Christmas play at church this year, so she’s been covered up with that. She has also been doing all of the shopping and everything else that goes along with this Christmas season.

For me, it really started the weekend of December 5. At work, we did a server room redesign. We pulled all of the network cabling from under the floor and put brand new cabling overhead. We added a second switch and made the two redundant. We ran two cables from each server – one to each of the switches. During that process, we were able to clean up our server racks quite a bit. There is still a little work to be done in that area, but it won’t take much.

Oh. That lasted 2 days – Saturday and Sunday.

With the company I work for being cheaper by the day, they won’t let me keep any overtime. I put in 25 hours over the weekend, so I only had to work 15 through the rest of the week before I reached my maximum of 40 hours. So I used all that time off from work to help where I could with the new fellowship hall we’re working on at church.

Most of the early part of the week was spent putting some finishing touches on some of the floor tile and trimming around it. Then we started moving everything off the floor so it could be cleaned and prepared for carpet. I really can’t remember what all else we did. It’s becoming a blur.

I do know that later in the week, we tried to clean the concrete floor by hand with mops. That worked really unwell. That floor had everything from paint to sheetrock mud to tile grout to sawdust and whatever else you could imagine being on a concrete floor during a construction project. We got our hands on this big nifty power tool that cleans concrete for you. You just have to steer it. It has a pad on the front of it that spins, much like a floor buffer. It dispenses water on that pad to help it break up whatever is on the floor. On the back of the machine, it has a squeegee with a vacuum on it to get all that dirty water off the floor. A couple times over the floor with that, and it was almost clean enough to eat off of.

On Saturday we began laying carpet. We got it in slightly over 3′ square tiles. This was for a couple of reasons – one being that it was said that it was generally easier to lay that than regular carpet on rolls. I’d never done either, so I’ll take their word for it. The second, and most important, reason was that if something was spilled on the carpet, the affected tile(s) could be pulled out and cleaned, or replaced if need be. The glue that is used is more of a no-slip contact material so that carpet can be easily pulled out and put back. Pretty nifty stuff.

Carpet was finished yesterday, and the gas fireplace was finally installed by the gas company.

I forgot to mention that the Christmas play is supposed to be in the fellowship hall this year. So my focus yesterday after work was to get the sound system working.

I had two ceiling speakers to install in the kitchen area. That wasn’t too much of a task. The wiring was already there – I just had to connect it and put the speakers in place. Piece of cake. After that, I had to connect these weird European (but supposedly popular) Neutrik Speakon connectors to the wiring I had in place. It was pretty simple once I figured out how the stupid things worked. I finished that job, locked them in place on the sound board, plugged in a mic, and . . . nothing. Great. What did I do wrong? Turns out the cable I had on the mic was bad. We got another mic, and the pastor and I tried a few buttons and switches on the board and sound magically came out of the main 4 speakers mounted on the walls in the main dining area. Awesome. I messed with the board a little more and tweaked a few settings here and there, and things worked great.

My focus this evening is to get the kitchen ceiling speakers wired in with the rest of the system. It shouldn’t be too much of a task. After that, I’ll be working on a couple of small stages for the play. I also need to learn a simple song on the piano for some of the younger kids to sing during the play.

I think that’s everything. That’s all I have written in my to-do list anyway. The whole thing is very enjoyable, but I’ll honestly be relieved when all of this hectic hurry up mode is over with.

About a month or so ago, a young lady in our youth group at church approached me and asked if I would be interested in speaking at an FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) gathering. I was honored to even be considered for something like that, and I jumped at the opportunity.

Since that time, I began thinking and praying about what God would have me to give that day. I was being led in a certain direction, then 2 of the young ladies that are in FCA and in our youth group told me what I should talk about. (I say that jokingly, but halfway serious also…)

Here’s what the deal was. At a late summer church event (a fun day to end the summer with lots of outdoor water games), I had the privilege to give a devotion to kick it off. I talked about how big God is, and how He meted out Heaven with the span of His hand. (Isaiah 40:12). In all fairness, I stole the thought from another preacher I heard preaching about it a few years ago. But it’s a great thought, and the youth were all amazed at how big God really is. So this is what they told me to speak on. This is also the direction God was guiding my heart.

So yesterday at this FCA gathering, I spoke to two groups at Central High in Wartburg. They have two lunch periods, and they meet during their lunch. I spoke along the same lines, and about how problems we face are like mountains. If God is so big to be able to mete out Heaven with the span of His hand, then the mountain of a problem we’re facing is a small thing to God and He has no trouble taking care of it, or taking care of us as we go through it.

They seemed to listen, and I really hope it was a blessing to them. I know it was to me. This was the first time I’ve done anything quite like this. I enjoyed it greatly, and my hope and prayer is that God somehow touched a life through me yesterday.

Wow, where did the Summer go? It seems like just last week June bugs were flying all over my yard and I was trying to keep weeds out of the garden. I gave up on the weeds, by the way – they finally took over.

It’s nearing the end of September, and the weather is hinting at turning a little more cool. I’m finding myself surprisingly ready for cold weather. I usually dread it. But I’m looking forward to the fireplace being put to use again, and eating a nice hot bowl of chili while watching the Colts beat up on whoever their next victim happens to be.

I’m looking forward to working with the youth on the next Christmas program at church (We need to get rolling with that by the way!) and bringing in yet another new year. 2009 hasn’t quite gotten out of our grasp yet, but it’s quickly rolling on by. What will we do with the rest of this year?

On my way to work this morning I saw a church sign with the words, “Truth Hurts”. I’ve actually been thinking along those same lines lately. There are several things over the past few months that have been brought up during preaching I’ve heard, as well as things I’ve been involved with personally, that when the truth has been spoken, it hurts.

I began asking myself, “Why does truth hurt? What makes it so harsh?” Mind you, I’m not questioning the validity or importance of truth at all. Truth is what is needed, rather than untruths or incomplete truths to make someone feel better about themselves or accepted in certain cliques.

The answer to the question of why truth hurts I believe is two-fold. First I’ll quote a verse:

Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.  -Psalm 119:165.

Back in February during our youth revival, I heard a message preached about the Great White Throne Judgment, and the reality of Hell. It was one of the roughest messages I’ve heard preached on Hell in a long time. It didn’t bother me at all though, for my own life (It did bother me for those that were present who were lost and didn’t respond). Not because I’ve grown cold or calloused to the subject, but because I have peace about my eternal destination because of what Jesus has done for me, and the fact that I’ve accepted Him as my Savior. So my point is that when you line up with the truth that is spoken, it doesn’t hurt. Which brings me to the first part of my answer.

Truth hurts because it exposes where you are wrong. It doesn’t necessarily expose it for all the world to see, but it will expose it to your conscience and your very soul. At the very least, it embarrasses you because you know that you’re not lining up with what is right.

The second part of my answer depends on a person’s willingness to respond to the truth they’ve been given. If they choose to correct where they’ve done wrong, it can hurt. An example can be where a person has done someone wrong, thinking they were right in doing whatever it was. When they were told the truth about the situation, it required them to humble themselves to go to that person and make things right with them. That’s a severe beating on a person’s pride!

The start of a healing process sometimes hurts. I’ll use an analogy here. I got into a little bit of poison ivy a little while back. It wasn’t bad – just a few small spots on both of my arms. I figured they were small enough and insignificant enough that if I left them alone, they’d heal on their own. On my left arm, a couple of those spots became bigger and were beginning to blister. I tried waiting a few more days, but they weren’t getting any better. I eventually had to pop those blisters and clean the wound really well so that it would heal properly. I didn’t look forward to beginning that healing process – popping those blisters didn’t hurt all that much, but cleaning them was a little painful. Rubbing alcohol was the best thing I could get my hands on for the job, and it burns on an open wound! However, it was a good thing to do, because those blisters are gone, and now you can barely tell there was any poison ivy there in the first place.

So there you have my reasons of why I believe truth hurts. It is only my opinion, but I think it’s right. Remember, though, that truth doesn’t have to hurt.

Feel free to leave your opinions on the topic on the comments section for this post. I could go on and on about it all, but I think most other ‘reasons’ could fall under the two I’ve listed here in one way or another. I’d be interested to see what others think about this all, though.

Some of the teenagers put on a skit at church last Sunday evening. We (the men) cooked for the ladies of the church for Mother’s Day, so instead of church services we had a church dinner/fellowship, and this skit was one of the things that kicked it off.

I hope you enjoy it! Click here for a larger version.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been overwhelmed. Not in an “I’m so stressed out I can’t take it any more!” kind of way at all. Maybe it’s more of an “I’m so busy lately that I sleep much better at night!” situation. It’s true, actually – I’ve been getting such good, sound sleep lately. I just wish I could get more of it.

Things have been picking up at work, first of all. We have 9 servers that need to be rebuilt and reconfigured. These servers are what our virtual infrastructure runs on. “What’s that?” you may ask. I’m so glad you asked! In a nutshell, a virtual infrastructure is a set of servers and network configurations that run on other servers. This is a good thing, because on these 9 servers, we have over 100 virtual servers running. So rather than having over 100 physical, real servers sitting in our datacenter, we only have 9. But we still get the benefit of the power these 100 servers offer us.

At home, well, the weather is changing. Spring is here and grass is growing. Along with weeds. Flowers too. This means mowing, weed-eating (Gotta get that weed eater fixed!) and gardening. I’m honestly excited to start the garden again this year. It just needs to dry out long enough to be plowed and tilled really well so that I can get some seeds in the ground. Spring means it’s also time to start working on getting firewood for next Winter. I’ve blogged about that in the recent past, so I won’t say much other than that I’ve gotten a pretty good start, but there’s a lot more to do.

Lastly, but certainly not least, we’ve been busy at church. Becky and I are, as most of you already know, teaching the teenage Sunday School class. I’m also in charge of the youth choir. We’re also working towards getting a teen visitation program going, as well as other youth ministries. I’m not sure I knew exactly what I was in for when I became the Youth Director, but the Lord had it in His plan, and Becky and I have been reaping blessings from it already. We’re thankful the Lord is using us, and praying that He will continue to do so, doing our best to stay in His will. These youth are a great bunch to work with. Our prayer is that they’ll have such a desire for God that we’ll be the ones trying to keep up with them!