I read a quote today as I was preparing for a funeral service that I am doing this week and it really is an awesome quote and one that I think every pastor should read and contemplate.  It is out of an article that is focused on the proper skills that it takes for us pastors to effectively communicate the gospel to our congregations.  Here is the quote:

“Truth, by itself, does not change lives when it is spoken. It only changes lives when it is heard and understood.”

Basically though this applies to all of us that are saved and are ministering/evangelizing to people.  You have to make the truth understandable and you have to exhibit it in your own life.   Everyone (unless you are a IT professional) understands what it is like have a IT person use a whole bunch of jargon and basically just confuse you even more that you were.  Well the same happens from the pulpit when we use so much jargon that the lost are just more confused when they walk out of church then when they walked in.  There are definelty times for explaining things in greater detail but as the article stated (and I agree) we have limited time to reach lost people and we have to make it as direct, focused, and clear as possible.   Remember that we dont save people only Jesus does, but we are a tool that He uses to do so.  Therefore we must read our Bible be prepared to share and keep it as simple as possible.

God Bless ~ Tyler

I had an appointment at the house this morning to have an appraisal done. When he and I talked on the phone to setup the appointment we discussed he would be there between 9:00-9:30am. Well about 9:08am I started getting a little bothered and basically saying “Come on lets get this done so that we can start the day”. Now remember I told him between 9:00 and 9:30 so after 8 minutes I became inpatient and started complaining. But isn’t that typical of our lives and of our attitudes. As Christians we spend so much time complaining about things that don’t matter and wanting God to be on our time schedule. When we pray for things and they do not happen as we think they should we get bent all out of shape. Look what the Psalmist said in Psalm 25: (I have added emphasis)

4 Make me know Your ways, O LORD;
Teach me Your paths.
5 Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
For You are the God of my salvation;
For You I wait all the day

20 Guard my soul and deliver me;
Do not let me be ashamed, for I take refuge in You.
21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me,
For I wait for You.

So I ask you again…How long would you wait? Would you wait all day, week, month, year? There is only one way to truly find the focus and purpose of this life and that is to have a heart like the Psalmist and ask the Lord to teach us His paths and His truths. We must take the attitude that we will not move until He directs. We as believers should never move forward in our own wisdom but only in His wisdom. Sometimes we must just sit, be quiet, and wait. But remember His plans are far greater than our plans could ever be even in our greatest creativity.

God Bless ~ Tyler

Me

I know that some readers are going to look at this and think this is kinda geeky however I would say that “Your Right”. I know it is geeky but I just could not help it. I think it is pretty funny but I also think it can be educational for someone to do this so let me get right down to the point. Yesterday I made myself an avatar. Now I know some of you are probably saying what is an avatar. Well it is in the Internet world an image that people will use to represent themselves in many ways i.e. their likes, their persona, their social stands, and so forth. Well for me it is just a little funny picture that I thought was pretty cool so I decided to sit down and make one that I tried to make look as accurate as possible. You guys can give your feedback as you feel led as to how accurate it is (unless it is that the character is not “large” enough-then keep that to yourself). But in doing so there was actually a very weird reaction. I have never sat down and really looked at myself physically and done an examination to try to make something else look like me. But it was quite revealing and alarming on many different levels. But what really struck me is this is something we should regularly do not only physically but more importantly spiritually. How often do we take the Bible and apply what is says to a mirror of our heart. That is why so many people don’t like what the Bible has to say because it then exposes their own faults and failures. I am sure that you have heard the statement that “Light exposes the dark”, well that is exactly what the world hates about God and the Bible. It forces you to say “you know I am a very flawed individual and I can’t make myself any better, I need Jesus.” And to be brutally honest that is exactly true. We as people are flawed in all sorts of ways that we can not correct on our own. And more importantly we may not even see some of our flaws without them being shown to us. Well what or who is going to show us what those are? When you need your car fixed do you take it to a blacksmith? No, you take it to someone who works on cars, well when you need your life and your inner soul fixed shouldn’t you take it to someone who works on souls? Well that is exactly what Jesus does. He works on your soul, and shows you the things that are wrong and need to be changed and then He even helps you change them (I wish the mechanic would help pay for the work sometime, ha ha ha .) God’s goal for your life is that you are close to Him and that you would live a life that honors Him. And in that kind of life you will find not only that you can look yourself in the mirror and be happy but that you will change the world around you. So my suggestion to you is take a second and take “The Light” and expose the dark places of your heart and ask Jesus to help you change those things. I guarantee that your life will never be the same.

God Bless ~ Tyler

This weekend I had the awesome opportunity to take the family out to a STL Cardinals game. Now when I say we went to the game that is actually not really accurate. We went to the game as part of the St. Louis Down’s Syndrome Group (a friend of the family has an awesome little boy that is a member of the group). We were part of an event called the “Buddy Walk” and “Walk in the park”. These events were to help raise awareness and money for the St. Louis Foundation. So we were able because of this foundation to actually go to the game and walk the field (on the warning track). This was a rush of emotions for me as my career ended after college due to arm trouble. It to be honest was in a way fulfilling my life long dream of walking out onto the field in a MLB park and looking at all of the fans and hearing the noise and (at one time) smelling the grass, pine tar, old leather, and other distinct baseball smells. This may still be hard for you to envision in your mind so I have included a picture that I took behind home plate at the bottom of this blog (I wish it could have been panaramic however my camera phone only does so much.)

So before I had actually stood behind the plate I could not even fathom what that sight was going to be like or make me feel like. And to be honest it was sensory overload, it was so much to take in that I could not even possibly get it all. And that makes me think about John when he received the vision from God as to what heaven is going to be like. Think about little ole’ me standing at home plate in Busch stadium with this massive stadium around me and it is bigger than anything that I could have imagined. Use that same concept to Heaven, it is so much more that we can ever imagine and fathom. Read a little snippet of scripture out of the 21st chapter of Revelation:

11having the glory of God Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper.
18The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass.
19 The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald;
21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

After reading this you can only imagine how this New Jerusalem will be a reflection of God’s glory and the beauty that it contains that John could not even put into words. There is no way that I can put into words what it meant and how it felt to be standing on a MLB field. I can only imagine that John felt the same way, there aren’t enough words in this language to describe what Heaven will be like. But I do know that we as believers will be amazed and awed at the beauty of it. Scripture tells us that we will be totally engulfed with God’s glory and will do nothing but praise Him and worship HIm. I am always fascinated with Heaven because it is a place with no pain and no saddness and a place where all of the glory and honor and praise is given to the Almighty. It is a place where we will be freed from our sinful natures and our faults as humans. We will finally be complete through God’s grace and mercy to stand before God and worship Him. Just like I can not explain what it meant and felt like to stand behind home plate, I am sure John was not able to fully describe what he saw. And as my senior pastor says, “I cant wait to get to heaven, that doesnt mean though that I want to be on the bus going!” Basically that means this: As a christian our place is with our Father in Heaven. Our purpose for creation was to fellowship with and worship Him. However, we have things on this earth that He has tasked us with and purposes for us to fufill. So although we long to be with Him we must also long to be obediant to His callings for our lives. I urge you to go find what God has for you so that you can find true fulfillment for your life. And also, go stand behind home plate sometime it is awesome!

God Bless ~ Tyler