Gone Fishin’

May 26, 2004 @ 11:46 pm by Pressed

Getting ready to go fishing tomorrow morning. I love to trout fish, not to mention that trout is one of the best tasting fish out there. I have to get up in about 4 hours to drive down to Montauk where I am sure the river is flooded well beyond it’s bounds because of the monsoon we have had the last two days.

This round Le Renard and myself are taking a new fisherman to the trout stream. The pastor’s son, who has a complete lack of knowledge when it comes to fishing. After coaching him through what to buy at wal-mart, tomorrow will be a fun day of watching him attempt his hand at fishing. Who knows, he may like it and we’ll have another fishing partner.

I am killing time waiting for Christopher’s dryer to stop. I grabbed my fishing vest tonight and noticed that it was covered in a filthy layer of disgusting mold. I am pretty manly about most things in life, but when it comes to mold I am a bit of a wimp. Uhhhgg, it gives me the chills. I was going to wal-mart to purchase a new vest when Chris found it in his heart to let me use his washing machine. Good thing too, that new vest was $24. Unfortunately the dryer is so slow it will probably finish drying the clothes one day after eternity…

Ok, I’m out. I will let you know about my flooded, wet, fishing adventure tomorrow.

Pressed

P.S. Has anyone else noticed the odd phenomenon of disappearing posts at the bottom of my site. It’s just a big blank yellow space… weird.

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I Must Have Sin In My Life…

May 25, 2004 @ 10:30 pm by Pressed

Today I woke up with the intention of taking a trip to St. Louis. I had two hospital visits at two different hospitals to make, and I went to pick up a new PowerBook G4 at CompUSA. By the time I got up and went to the church I had been informed that I had to make three hospital visits at three different hospitals, I had to go by the bookstore, and I had to go to CompUSA. After sitting in my office for awhile my plans were changed again when I was informed that I had to make four hospital visits at three different hospitals, I had to go by the bookstore, I had an appointment at MoBap at 2:00, and I had to go by CompUSA. When I was half way to St. Louis the phone rang and lo and behold in addition to the meeting, the bookstore, and CompUSA, I now have 5 hospital visits to make.

I decided to go to Lifeway bookstore first because it was farthest away. I strategically called ahead and had them set aside the book I needed to get so that I could just walk in, pay for it and leave. The plan worked flawlessly. Unfortunately Lifeway did not like this plan because they hired some thug from the lawn and garden department to attack me. As I was walking out of the store I crossed the street and stepped on the sidewalk just in time for the head of a sprinkler system to pop out of the ground and start shooting water. As luck would have it I was standing over the broken sprinkler at the time, which means it didn’t come out in a small shower but instead large amounts of water spewed out upon my dress pants, completely soaking me. This means I had to go make my first hospital visit with soaking wet pants!

Trying to find people in hospitals becomes a challenge. My first visit was a disaster, simply for the fact that I couldn’t find the guy. I went upstairs and downstairs, up and down elevators, down long hallways, through doors, more elevators, more doors, until I finally found the cath lab that the front desk told me to go to. It’s too bad he wasn’t there. So it was back down the hallways, back through the doors and back down the elevator only to catch the guy going back up the elevator, back through the doors and back down the halls. When I finally caught up and introduced myself I was only able to talk to him for a brief minute before he had to go into the lab. So, after a 1 minute conversation I had to go back down the hall, back through the doors, back down the elevator and back out to the truck.

When I arrived at my meeting for a summer class at MoBap I stepped out of the truck only to be soaked again by a pouring rain. Thunder, lighting, rain, hail and winds ripped through the area I was in, knocked the power out, threw large hail upon my vehicle, and caused me to have to sit around and wait for an hour so the storm would pass over. When it did I ran back out to the truck and drove to CompUSA.

The good news is, when I was on my way to the third hospital to see the last two people I received a phone call from Evan who just happened to be in the area I was traveling to and so he stopped by to visit those two people so I didn’t have to. That was exciting, so I could just go home after a looong day. Unfortunately on the way home I rain into three more heavy rain storms that just made a mess out of my traveling experience.

So, by the time I arrived home I had driven 168 miles to two hospitals, visited three people, went to the bookstore, and visited CompUSA in a hail storm, in a gushing rain, and through three or four bad accident scenes. But, I should count my blessings; at least I have a new book, a new Laptop, and I didn’t hydroplane into a concrete wall.

So the moral of the story… well there is no moral to the story at all really…

Pressed

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Graduation… too bad it isn’t mine.

May 22, 2004 @ 7:14 am by Pressed

Graduation and parties have been consuming all of my time, unfortunately none of them are mine. I had to go to Sullivan graduation last night to see my seniors graduate. It started at 8:00 and lasted until 9:45, eek. I do however enjoy Sullivan graduation because they have it outside, which is ten times better than sitting in a hot gym and sweating to death while a bunch of boring people get up to speak. I had to park out in a field behind the new school theater.

Today I am going to Bolivar, MO to see a friend of mine graduate from SBU. Driving straight up there this morning, going to graduation at 10:00 a.m. and then driving straight back to Sullivan to go to one of my students graduation parties, and then leaving from there to go to my moms birthday party. Tomorrow and next Sunday I have some more graduation parties to attend. May is such a busy month! I have had my own finals going this week, as you’ve noticed with my severe lack of posting. I had many things in mind to post, but none of them ever made it to the blog.

Now I am sitting here at Christopher’s waiting for him to get ready so that we can get on the road. A long drive ahead of us, good thing he is driving. I’m sitting here listening to his iTunes which is a song playing smorgasboard. I’ve heard everything from the Beatles to ‘Rockin around the Christmas tree’ by the Partridge family.

Pressed

I just remembered I need to get my mom a birthday present. AHHH!

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Step-O-Meter

May 17, 2004 @ 8:57 pm by Pressed

Well, I have decided to take Christopher’s Step-o-Meter challenge. I went to McDonalds tonight to get an Adult Happy meal, which is a salad, bottle of water, and a step-0-meter to count the steps you take in a day.

I will put it on tomorrow to see how many steps I take during a day of work at the Church. I doubt it will be as many as Mr. Wright takes…

Pressed

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What Ever Happened To Worship?

May 13, 2004 @ 5:09 pm by Pressed

On any given Sunday morning hundreds of people pull into their nicely paved parking spots that overlook a beautifully landscaped area with blooming flowers, trimmed bushes and freshly cut grass. They walk up the sidewalk, barely noticing the last of three brand new vans finishing their rounds and pulling into the bus garage across the street. A smiling face greets them at the door and hands them a fancy church bulletin, printed in color, as they proceed to enter the auditorium. Immediately two large screens, one on each side of the room, grab their attention as two projectors flash fancy PowerPoint slides and video images, from a brand new computer, onto the screens. They finally sit down on their soft, comfortable pew and begin staring at the fresh flowers that line the stage every week. Shortly after the people get comfortable, a beautiful arrangement of music begins to flow out of a new baby grand piano and a matching electronic keyboard sitting on both sides of the stage. When the music comes to an end the handsomely dressed pastor quickly steps up to the podium to welcome the crowd to the morning worship service. Week after week seems the same, they sing a few songs, listen to a message, stand quietly during the invitation and then return to their cars exactly the same as when they came in. If I were to describe some of these people I would have to say they are neither not, nor cold, but lukewarm. There are many churches that look as if they have everything they need, and if they don’t have it they can get it. The problem is, most of our church members don’t realize they lack something that is vital to the life of a Christian, true, life changing Worship.

“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” (Revelation 3:14-17)

The church spends a large amount of time and resources working for God. It is a big deal when we have people volunteering their time to do ministry for the sake of God’s kingdom. I support that one hundred percent because I think Christians should be involved in ministry and doing the work the Lord has given them, within the right context. In his book, Whatever Happened To Worship, A. W. Tozer points out, and I agree, that we should not be concerned about working for God until we have learned the meaning and the delight of worshiping Him. This is why we are here, we were created to worship. God is not in desperate need of faulty humans trying to do His work for Him, but He does desperately want His people to worship Him and enjoy Him forever. Our desire to do ministry and work for God should come out of our worship and adoration of Him. To the true worshiper, carnal and worldly religious projects pale in comparison to devoted and reverent worship. It is in worship that we find irresistible joy and unquenchable peace, it is in worship that we rejoice and take great pleasure in God, and it is in worship that we are doing what we were created to do. We may have great churches and beautiful sanctuaries but we are in desperate need of worshipers.

“There are a lot of people who are willing to sit on our church boards who have no desire for spiritual joy and radiance and never show up for the church prayer meeting. These are the men who often make the decisions about the church budget and the church expenses and where the frills will go in the new edifice.” There are many cases where the people running the church do not pray or worship, but simply spend their time determining where the church will go and completely miss their purpose in the body of Christ. We were created to worship God and unfortunately it seems as if we are just attempting to be a part of some “ecclesiastical machine.” According to the Westminster Catechism; “the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” To worship and glorify God is our purpose. A Christian who does not know why they are here has lost their identity. My desire is to see us reclaim our own identity and as a result, see my church get back to worship again. I desire to see people come into our doors and instantly sense the presence of a holy God among His holy people.

“God’s highest desire is that every one of His believing children should so love and so adore Him that we are continuously in His presence, in Spirit and in truth.” Tozer points out the first requirement for being in the presence of God in such a manner, which is to be a converted believer in Jesus Christ. When Jesus changes our lives we are being restored to the place of worship which was intended from the beginning of creation. We were created in His image, created with the capacity to know God and the instincts to worship Him. When the Spirit regenerates us our whole being senses the connection to God and leaps in joyous recognition! It can be concluded that those who have never experienced the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit cannot truly worship God. Even if the church can get over the hurdle of having a large percentage of church members who cannot worship God because they do not know Him, there is still the problem with believers who are not experiencing true spiritual worship. How is it that the true children of God have reached such a state? Tozer believers it is because the people who lead us in the pulpit and in the pew do not give much indication that fellowship with God is delightful beyond telling. In other words, it is our lack of understanding who God really is and what worship is really about that keeps us from the true spiritual worship that God desires. To correct this problem we must correct our understanding of who God is and who we are in Him.

God is the most enchanting and glorious being of all, and in our worship of Him we should find unspeakable pleasure. God is pleased to reveal Himself to those who seek Him so that we would know and understand who He really is and what that means to our lives. It is in our knowledge of God that we find great purpose and motivation for worship. Unfortunately the church is in the habit of offering up an artificial means to try and induce some kind of worship, when all we need is true believers soaking up God’s revelation of Himself which creates a response of incredible worship.

Tozer believes there are forms of worship that God will not accept. Christians may worship in many different ways and offer their worship to God, however it may not be an acceptable form of worship. The reality is, true worship must be in spirit and in truth even though it is plainly possible to have a religious experience apart from Christ. It is impossible for any of us to worship God without the impartation of the Holy Spirit. It is the operation of the Spirit of God within us that enables us to worship God acceptably, which means worship originates with God, it’s led by God, and carried out to God. No other form of worship is acceptable. “When a person, yielding to God and believing the truth of God, is filled with the Spirit of God, even his faintest whisper will be worship.”

God is complete in purity and holiness. He is far more holy than anything man would consider good on earth. God is righteous beyond measure, completely divine in His nature and He is one who’s character and nature signal perfection. Our reaction to the divine attributes of God should be like Isaiah’s reaction when he found himself in the presence of the almighty. “He was struck with awe, his whole world quickly dissolving into a vast, eternal brightness.” There is something about God that is different, that is beyond us, that is above us. When a believer encounters the presence of the living God there are several unavoidable reactions. First of all the believer is struck with awe at the magnificence of God. Secondly the believer is trapped with complete horror of his own sin and unrighteousness as he sees his life in stark contrast to that of complete holiness. Thirdly the believer is enflamed with deep sorrow and conviction over their present state of sinfulness. Lastly the believer is thrust into a state of confession and repentance before God in an act of complete obedience and worship of His divine nature and immense holiness. Unfortunately this does not look like the worship services in our church today. Confession, repentance, and conviction over sin seem to be lost in our failed attempts at creating a worship that is comfortable for everyone. There is still great depravity among the people who are called to be saints, and sadly they seem to be totally unaware of it. I believe that the man who has seen the true beauty of God is completely broken and undone before Him, and it is at the point of being undone that God raises us up to worship Him and praise Him like never before. Worship is a response to God’s revelation of Himself, a revelation that should shed light on the darkness that fills man. Tozer believes that “God has saved us to be worshipers.” It is Tozer’s desire, and it should be ours, that God would show us a vision of ourselves that will disvalue us to the point of total devaluation. From there He can raise us up to worship Him and praise Him and to witness.

It seems as though Christians are losing their awareness of God. We have so secularized God, secularized the gospel, and secularized worship that we no longer know what it means to love and worship God because in the route that has brought us into the church there has been no personal encounter, no personal crisis, no need of repentance. Week after week we pile into multi-million dollar establishments, experience a religious service, and leave no different that when we went in. The splendor of God that we sing, read, and hear about on a Sunday morning is quick to leave us when we walk out of the doors and into “real” life again. True worship, however, does not stop at the door of the church. It is a part of our daily lives, in everything we do, as we recognize the grandeur of God in all creation, at every moment in our day. “Our total lives, our entire attitude as persons, must be toward the worship of God.”

A believer fully determined to seek, yield, and believe that which God has revealed to us has a heart fully devoted to unbroken fellowship and communion with God in our day to day lives. When we pull into our nicely paved parking spots, gaze at the beauty of our churches, and walk through the doors into a place of worship each Sunday, it is to the glory of our risen savior. Having worshiped God all week with our lives, we now celebrate with one another and confess and repent before God standing in awe of his holiness as his presence fills our hearts. When we walk out of those doors we will be different, renewed, and ready for another full week of worshiping God with our lives. Why? Because we were created to worship.

Pressed

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