Recently my wife and I were asked to lead our Junior High Ministry at our church. As all of our kids have moved up to the student ministry, we decided that it would be nice change and of course a challenge.
Our Student Ministry Pastor has been great in giving us a pretty good amount of rope to allow us to run the class as God leads us. We have had great help in our class as well, many parent volunteers who are willing to jump in and help us out.
Every Wednesday night we look to have a lesson that gets the kids closer to a personal relationship with Jesus.
My wife picked last night's lesson, she was concerned that our current students lack a true understanding of what true Worship is. That Worship is a lot more than just singing songs to God. She saw that the kids weren't engaging.
I had to agree with her. When the student band starts to sing praise and worship songs, a lot of the kids are distracted. They are mingling with each other, they are texting, or they decide now is the time to wander the halls of the church.
So, this last Wednesday night we decided to have a night that spoke of Worship.
We started off in explaining that true Worship is anything that brings pleasure to God. So, this night our class consisted of different
stations that the kids would visit, do a Worship related activity, Confession, Forgiveness, Meditation, Where they were at in their journey of faith, etc...and get an understanding of what
Worship truly is.
I was not prepared for what happened last night. GOD SHOWED UP!!! Don't get me wrong, I firmly believe God shows up every time one or more are gathered in His name, but last night, because there was true Worship occurring and it was pleasing to God, He allowed me and quite a few others there that night to really experience His presence.
In looking back at last night, I realized I may not have truly been Worshiping God as HE intended.
So, for those of you out there, remember to Worship God in all things - Singing, writing, talking, walking, riding bikes, bowling, playing your favorite sport - well you get the idea, because HE will show up, after all we were MADE to Worship the One True and Living God!
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
When did THAT happen?
...this just in, I am getting old.
I realized this while watching my three children wash our two cars this weekend. They are 16, 14, and 13. And when I looked on them spraying each other with the hose, it dawned on me that I am older than I feel.
Feeling that way, one would guess that is a good thing. I on the other hand look at my two boys and wonder if I have been raising them correctly. My daughter does not worry me that much, my wife has been doing a fantastic job in raising her to be a confident young woman. However, the task of raising Godly young men falls directly on me. Sure I have a great example that I can follow, but I know I do not do what I am supposed to do all the time.
Let's face facts, I am an extremely flawed person. How do I know this? I see myself in the mirror every morning and see a face of that person with baggage staring right back at me. I tend to repeat the same mistakes over and over, and only by Grace does the cycle eventually end.
And what's worse is, I find myself questioning if I am using the right kind of (for the lack of a better term) tactics to raise my boys to be the Godly men that they should be. Not what I think they should be, or what the world thinks they should be, but God's standard on what they should be.
My boys are a short time away from becoming men, this kind of stuff makes me lay awake at night and stare at the ceiling.
And while I am laying there, I take a hard look at my life and what I have done in my past and what was done to me and I pray that I am trusting in God to not repeat the mistakes I have made.
Trust me, the list of my mistakes is long and I realize I am not supposed to dwell on them. For once I asked for forgiveness and repented, God forgives and forgets my past sins and transgressions. But that old and dead man rises up and reminds me that I am doing a lousy job in raising my kids, and that gives me pause.
These last years with my children growing into teenagers has been a wonderful, eye opening experience and I would not trade it in for anything.
And at the same time, I feel anxiety in the fact that my time with these blessings is drawing closer and closer. And it seems that I have not taught them everything, I believe that I should...
I realized this while watching my three children wash our two cars this weekend. They are 16, 14, and 13. And when I looked on them spraying each other with the hose, it dawned on me that I am older than I feel.
Feeling that way, one would guess that is a good thing. I on the other hand look at my two boys and wonder if I have been raising them correctly. My daughter does not worry me that much, my wife has been doing a fantastic job in raising her to be a confident young woman. However, the task of raising Godly young men falls directly on me. Sure I have a great example that I can follow, but I know I do not do what I am supposed to do all the time.
Let's face facts, I am an extremely flawed person. How do I know this? I see myself in the mirror every morning and see a face of that person with baggage staring right back at me. I tend to repeat the same mistakes over and over, and only by Grace does the cycle eventually end.
And what's worse is, I find myself questioning if I am using the right kind of (for the lack of a better term) tactics to raise my boys to be the Godly men that they should be. Not what I think they should be, or what the world thinks they should be, but God's standard on what they should be.
My boys are a short time away from becoming men, this kind of stuff makes me lay awake at night and stare at the ceiling.
And while I am laying there, I take a hard look at my life and what I have done in my past and what was done to me and I pray that I am trusting in God to not repeat the mistakes I have made.
Trust me, the list of my mistakes is long and I realize I am not supposed to dwell on them. For once I asked for forgiveness and repented, God forgives and forgets my past sins and transgressions. But that old and dead man rises up and reminds me that I am doing a lousy job in raising my kids, and that gives me pause.
These last years with my children growing into teenagers has been a wonderful, eye opening experience and I would not trade it in for anything.
And at the same time, I feel anxiety in the fact that my time with these blessings is drawing closer and closer. And it seems that I have not taught them everything, I believe that I should...
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Ya - I published my second BOOK!!
Okay, it is more a collection of skits, sketches and shorts that I have written in the past. Most of them have to do with church and what the Pastor/Leader was wanting to make a point about.
I have 12 offerings in the first book and 12 more in the second book (soon to be published) and it looks like I will have enough to even do a third book!
Like I said before, Amazon is really easy to allow you to do this, so if any of you out there have ever thought about wanting to make it happen, do it!!
In Christ,
Dave
Okay, it is more a collection of skits, sketches and shorts that I have written in the past. Most of them have to do with church and what the Pastor/Leader was wanting to make a point about.
I have 12 offerings in the first book and 12 more in the second book (soon to be published) and it looks like I will have enough to even do a third book!
Like I said before, Amazon is really easy to allow you to do this, so if any of you out there have ever thought about wanting to make it happen, do it!!
In Christ,
Dave
Sunday, September 2, 2012
I Published my first BOOK!!!
Hello all, this is my first post to my new blog site. I hope you all enjoy yourselves here!!!
First off, let me start by saying the reason I started this blog is I just finished my first book and uploaded it to amazon.com! (Link at the bottom of the post to take a look at it on Amazon's site).
Now, let me first start off by saying if you are an aspiring writer, really take a look at what Amazon has to offer for self publishing. It was very easy and there are quite a few sites that walk you through how to make sure your book is properly formatted to be uploaded to the Amazon site. (At the end of this post I will make links available to these sites as well as Amazon's site for publishing).
Anyway, back to the book. It has taken me a little while to write a book. It has been about 6-7 years in the making. It has run me through a gamut of emotions, from joy, excitement, frustration and even anger some times. Writing a book is a crazy process and once you finish it, it can be heart wrenching to publish it. Not in the sense that it is a hard and arduous process, but once it's complete it is almost like a part of you that you are letting go. The main thing is the waiting for someone to pick it up, read it and tell you what they think of it. Sure, you can have friends and family read it, but unless you have a heartless family, they will tell you that they think it is great. (Let's face it, there are a ton of folks trying out for American Idol, that someone in their family should have given them honest criticism long before the judges have to...)
Regardless, my book is out there now, so if you have an ereader and 2.99 to spend, please give it a go and let me know what you think. By the way, I take James Patterson to heart when he said that not enough young men have books geared toward them. My book was written for my both my boys (13 and 14) and my daughter as she enjoys Fantasy as well.
Anyway that is what I have for now, check back often as I will be adding more blogs in the future about writing skits, plays and books. I am also an avid Improv player, so those of you who are into that, I will be talking about that as well.
But before I go, I promised you all some links -
My Book! - Wizardize
How to Publish your book on Kindle
The steps to Publish at Amazon!
God Bless!!
First off, let me start by saying the reason I started this blog is I just finished my first book and uploaded it to amazon.com! (Link at the bottom of the post to take a look at it on Amazon's site).
Now, let me first start off by saying if you are an aspiring writer, really take a look at what Amazon has to offer for self publishing. It was very easy and there are quite a few sites that walk you through how to make sure your book is properly formatted to be uploaded to the Amazon site. (At the end of this post I will make links available to these sites as well as Amazon's site for publishing).
Anyway, back to the book. It has taken me a little while to write a book. It has been about 6-7 years in the making. It has run me through a gamut of emotions, from joy, excitement, frustration and even anger some times. Writing a book is a crazy process and once you finish it, it can be heart wrenching to publish it. Not in the sense that it is a hard and arduous process, but once it's complete it is almost like a part of you that you are letting go. The main thing is the waiting for someone to pick it up, read it and tell you what they think of it. Sure, you can have friends and family read it, but unless you have a heartless family, they will tell you that they think it is great. (Let's face it, there are a ton of folks trying out for American Idol, that someone in their family should have given them honest criticism long before the judges have to...)
Regardless, my book is out there now, so if you have an ereader and 2.99 to spend, please give it a go and let me know what you think. By the way, I take James Patterson to heart when he said that not enough young men have books geared toward them. My book was written for my both my boys (13 and 14) and my daughter as she enjoys Fantasy as well.
Anyway that is what I have for now, check back often as I will be adding more blogs in the future about writing skits, plays and books. I am also an avid Improv player, so those of you who are into that, I will be talking about that as well.
But before I go, I promised you all some links -
My Book! - Wizardize
How to Publish your book on Kindle
The steps to Publish at Amazon!
God Bless!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)