Archive for April, 2008

As many of you know, my wife and I have 4 children all of whom are totally different in their personalities and in their likes, dislikes, desires, and energy level.  Well the last and quite possibly my smaller clone is a 2 year old little boy that cannot find a possible way to stand, sit, or sleep in a quite still fashion.  He is so different from the girls in that he must have his hands on something from the moment he wakes up until the moment he goes to sleep.  Well this has been quite a problem for my wife as of late in that she is finding it more and more difficult to teach school (we home school all of the kids (in case you didn’t know)) due to his constant interruptions and the fact that if he is silent for more that 10 seconds you better go check on him.  So, now that it is beginning to get warm and the kids can go outside more we are trying to find ways to entertain him during school hours.  One of those ways is with a corn table.  For those of you who have no idea what that is; it is a table much like a sandbox but with whole kernel corn that you would feed to animals in it.  It is much easier than sand because the kids don’t get it everywhere.

As I was driving into work this morning I was thinking about all of the things that we could do to help occupy him and (by the way we are looking for a swingset…anybody knows of one let me know) entertain him so to speak.  And I was directed in my mind to the thoughts of our walk as Christians.  I had to take a moment and thank God for his infinite wisdom and how He protects us from ourselves.  I know of several situations in college that could have gone very bad for me and my life would be totally different than it is today.  Very easily I could have been inmate #191314 instead of writing this blog.  So my prayer for today for myself, my family, and for you is that God will continue to provide a hedge of protection around us that will protect us from what we don’t know or see.  A hedge that will protect us from ourselves and the stupid things we do.   I know that without the intervention of my Heavenly Father I would either be dead, in jail, or living a life on the streets.   If He had not loved me enough to send His son to die for my failures and my sins then what Hope would I have in this world?  And the other amazing thing is that He didn’t just do it for me but for you as well.  If you don’t know Him today please email me or talk with someone who does know Him. 

God Bless ~ Tyler   

Well I want to start out by telling you that you must read to the end of the blog before you judge it or before you form an opinion and to be honest before you get mad if you feel that this includes you.  And to quote a fellow pastor “You have to know what you are doing is settled between you and God.  If it is then no matter what anyone else says or thinks you should not be upset because you don’t have to live up to their standard just God’s.  But then again if you are bothered by it then maybe you should examine whether God is speaking to you or not.” 

I want to be honest about some things and tell my true feelings without hurting anyone or being misunderstood.  I want to use this as a way to not only tell my feelings but also try to encourage people to take advantage of some things that I see true value in.  And please remember where my heart is, it is wanting nothing more than for myself as well as everyone else to be able to make a HUGE impact on the lost for Christ.  Just like the woman at the well I want to leave my water pot behind and go tell everyone about the Messiah.  So with that warning statement in place…here it goes!

Last night I concluded my sermon series on Relational Christianity with a sermon on Jesus and how He interacted with people other than just preaching to them.  And although I am highly critical of my own sermons, I was saddened last night but not due to the sermon but by the turn out of our congregation.   And it didn’t have anything to do with the fact that I was preaching but with the participation.  I see Sunday nights as a time that those who serve all day and all week for the church can come and get feed themselves.  For those that have very active roles on Sunday morning, Wednesday night and Thursday nights with E3 groups this is a time for us to sit in a chair and be feed.  To not have to serve and to just be “selfish” in a way and to just take in.  And again I, if anyone understand the busyness of life and all of the different ways that we can get pulled.  Krystal and I spend 4 nights a week being pulled in different directions  because of our kids activities and overlaps that 3 practices, 3 dance classes,  2 piano lessons, and trying to keep up with a 2 year old causes.  But isn’t that what we need during all of that chaos is to crawl up in our Father’s lap and just stop everything to be with Him.   And I know that everyone reading this can say well I had this last night or it was  cause of this last night, but again it was spurred by last night but by no means was last night a rarity.   For a church that has 140ish members we average 20-25 adults on a Sunday night.  Very quickly do the math on that, actually I already did and it is 17.87%.  Is anyone else saddened by that number?  I know that we cannot be at everything but shouldn’t our participation as a church body be higher than that?  And I know there are churches out there that have canceled Sunday night and they are going to say “See that is why we have canceled Sunday night services” but is that really the answer either?  Do we lower the bar of expectations because we have trouble meeting them?  Does God lower His expectations of righteousness because we cant meet them?    If your child makes a D in school do we suddenly start saying that D’s are okay or do we prompt them to do better?   To me; it is about effort, let’s use the analogy of the child getting a D, if they are spending their time playing video games then that is one thing, but if they are trying their hardest and still get that then that is totally a different event.  I guess I look at it in what difference it would make if the part of the congregation that never comes would try to make it 2 times a month, wonder how that would influence others or what kind of impact that would make on others.  But better yet what would it do for our church.  How much closer and bonded would we be?  Could we make a bigger impact on our community?  I don’t know the answers to those questions but I know that 17% isn’t necessarily giving our best effort either.

God Bless ~ Tyler

This is a song that we have all heard many, many times and although I dont really like the movie the song has been used on every singing reality show there is it seems like to show vocalists range and abilities.  Well today when I was driving into work I saw a rainbow not in the sky but on the side of a billboard and it made me think about God’s promise to Noah and to all of us.  However when I got into work I received an email from a friend and it had an image in it that I want to share.  And the caption that he sent to me was this…”finally someone figured out what as at the end of the rainbow.”

Now, because I look at things a little different than everyone else; think that this is actually pretty funny.  To me this image symbolizes all that man tries and strives for.   Man is always looking for the easy way out, we want to find that pot of Gold at the end of the rainbow hoping that all of our troubles will end.  But I think this picture is actually a great representation of where all of our toil and desires will lead us…to the toilet.  So I think that the song actually got it right.  We need to look over the rainbow, that is where we will find our happiness, completeness, and our salvation from the depths of hell.  I know that this is probably a very weird window into my mind, but welcome!

God Bless ~ Tyler

I was listening to the radio this morning and there was nothing on the Christian stations that really caught my ear so I went surfing down the dial.  When I happen to get distracted and the radio stopped on a country station that I decided to stay with as I haven’t listened to any country in awhile.  A song began to play a short time after I began to listen from an artist that I like their music but choose not to listen to due to the language and some of the references.  Well, I am glad I stuck with this song because it had a message that I thought was awesome.  Here is the chorus:

But I know I’m a lucky man
God’s given me a pretty fair hand
Got a house and a piece of land
A few dollars in a coffee can
My old trucks still running good
My ticker’s ticking like they say it should
I got supper in the oven, a good woman’s loving
And one more day to be my little kid’s dad
Lord, knows I’m a lucky man

Now although I know that all of these don’t apply to me I think that the statement in and of itself it very profound.  God really has blessed so many of us and we choose not to see the things that we have because we get tricked into only seeing what we don’t.  Or, we allow these stresses in life to get us to a point where we take our eyes off of Him and put them into the things of this world.  Jesus tells us,

Matthew 6:25-27 (New American Standard Bible)
 25″ For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

 26″Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

 27″And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?

My prayer today is that we as the body of Christ; take time to remember that Christ is going to provide all of our needs, and that we should take the time to stop and enjoy the blessings that He has given us.  I know that I never spend enough time with my wife and kids.  And I think that I am fortunate to spend more time than most dads’ get.  But do we as parent’s and spouses really look at things from the perspective of:

I got supper in the oven, a good woman’s loving
And one more day to be my little kid’s dad

Remember, our spouse and our children are gifts and some for just a short time.  We need to take the attitude that we get one more day to be their dad/husband.  I think we would take more time and more effort than we do.

God Bless ~ Tyler