"This life therefore, is not Righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yeat what we shall be, but we are growing toward it; the process is not yet finished but it is going on. This is not the end of the road; all does not yet gleam in glory but all is being purified."
- Martin Luther

"The Spirit was the central promise of the new covenant: God would dwell with all his people intimately and equally. This is now our reality. In the Spirit of Jesus, God has made his home with us. This presence, this gift, lifts our humanity to a new order."
- Mark Strom


These two quotes have fed me this week. The quote by Luther reminds me that change in my life and change in the life of others will never be finished this side of Heaven. I have realized this week I often want myself and others to arrive at a particular point so I no longer have to struggle or bear the struggles of others. But, their is something, greater more powerful at work in me, the Spirit of the living God. The quote by Strom is awesome. It reminds me that if you belong to Jesus the Spirit makes his home with us and nothing, I mean nothing can destroy that relationship. God has staked his Son's life on it. Our marriage relationship to Jesus cannot be broken. In the words of Paul "For no one of us lives, and equally no one of us dies, for himself alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. Whether therefore we live or die, we belong to the Lord."

Computer

Hey, I am looking for either a donated laptop computer or one that is severly discounted. Since our church doesn't have an office, I am on the run a lot and would love a computer that I could set up shop and check my email. I don't want anything fancy. Just something I can carry around and that is capable of running highspeed internet as well as Windows and Microsoft Office. I have all the software I need. Also, I would love to have a CD-R drive. Thanks!

Foolishness

I preached this past Sunday. At Hanover Valley, I get a lot of opportunities to preach. This Fall I will preach once a month. Most guys in my position would be drulling for the opportunities I have . I don't, I have a tendency to break out in a rash of panic and insecurity. Here's the thing, I am not a bad preacher. However, whenever I get up in that pulpit thing, I just feel so exposed, so naked when I preach. I feel like everyone gazes into my soul and sees my inability to preach. I know I will never be a Tim Keller, John Piper or any of those big wigs. I am not great with illustrations and I struggle with being faithful to the text and at the same time being practical. I am like a two year old trying to color, my sausage fingers fumble trying to handle the crayon. I often get so worked up and freaked out the night before that I turn off my heart when I get upfront to preach. I become a man who reads a document about God, instead of man who speaks of the God he is encountering and learning from.

Sunday morning I woke up at 5:30am to talk to Jesus. I started reading 1 Corinthians again. I came to chapter 2. I love chapter 2, it makes unpolished, neurotic young ministers feel better. However, instead of the passage making me feel better, I felt the freedom of speaking about Jesus. "When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God...We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but no the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began." I can't describe the specific impact the passage has made on me, but it has given me an intense freedom to be me. To not worry about who I think I should be, but to proclaim the Gospel, to speak of Jesus as awkardly and wordy as I may be, because it is about the Spirit who opens and changes hearts. It is about the Spirit who wants to open the hearts of those who stumble and those who are foolish to the beauty of Christ. I prayed with an earnestness I haven't felt before for that God would use this foolish man to speak. It's funny, God answered my prayers. I got the nice comments like "Good job! You are really growing in your preaching." But, their was one person who has recently started coming to church. He was weeping. So, we talked. He told me for the first time he realized how much Jesus loved him. The Gospel made sense to him. I sat there amazed and speechless. We prayed and thanked God for how he had broken through in His life. I saw the Spirit at work in a very powerful way. I too became a believer again in a God who is powerful and loving. A God who loves to make himself known. A God who uses His Word to make sense of our lives. It was beautiful, supernatural and simply mysterious.