Ministering reconciliation...

Exodus 18:17-23 Moses' father-in-law said, "This is no way to go about it. You'll burn out, and the people right along with you. This is way too much for you—you can't do this alone. Now listen to me. Let me tell you how to do this so that God will be in this with you. Be there for the people before God, but let the matters of concern be presented to God. Your job is to teach them the rules and instructions, to show them how to live, what to do. And then you need to keep a sharp eye out for competent men—men who fear God, men of integrity, men who are incorruptible—and appoint them as leaders over groups organized by the thousand, by the hundred, by fifty, and by ten. They'll be responsible for the everyday work of judging among the people. They'll bring the hard cases to you, but in the routine cases they'll be the judges. They will share your load and that will make it easier for you. If you handle the work this way, you'll have the strength to carry

Exodus 1:1-7 These are the names of the Israelites who went to Egypt with Jacob, each bringing his family members: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. Seventy persons in all generated by Jacob's seed. Joseph was already in Egypt. Then Joseph died, and all his brothers—that whole generation. But the children of Israel kept on reproducing. They were very prolific—a population explosion in their own right—and the land was filled with them. An idea has been stuck in my craw for the last few weeks. It was stated in passing at church by one of our pastors, but in thinking about it, it makes a TON of sense. The idea was presented: "If you look at Nature, it doesn't just sustain, it flourishes." It was used to talk about how God wants us to be blessed and prosper. Now, I am pondering this and I just happened to read this scripture in Exodus 1: 7 "They were prolific-- a

There was a man once. This man had some of the hardest things imaginable happen to him. He started out from good enough upbringing. His dad and mom really loved him and tried their best to instill good principles. Sure he'd made some mistakes, but who hadn't? Selah He'd had some brothers that decided one day they'd had enough. They decided to put him into a slave ring. After awhile working for this one guy, the man was falsely accused of sexual misconduct and sent to jail. While in jail, God still blessed the man. It really doesn't matter what happens in life, if God blesses you, he may not change your outcome, but he may use your outcome to change people. Selah While in the jail, the president of the country had a couple of things he just couldn't figure out happen to him. He called all his support network, but no one knew what to do to explain what he experienced. Then, someone who's life was changed by the man told the President about the man.

It's been awhile since I have blogged. In that time, my wife and I had our first child, a son! His name is Jude Daniel. He is adorable and I will post a picture at the end of this blog. You always hear "I learned so much from my kids," the funny part of that statement is that my lesson started the first night we had Jude. As a nurse came in to check on him, she was talking to us about the differences between a mother and father's voice. Mother's voice is a stimulant and father's voice is soothing. When we think of God, we tend to think of Him as a father correct? In fact, Galatians says that because we have a spirit of "sonship" we can call out "Abba father" Abba is a personal term of endearment. It is not used by anyone off the street. Over the last 2 weeks, I have pondered that statement. I have been thinking about the last time I heard God's voice. When I heard it, it soothed and settled me. It also reminded me of a story I hea

Genesis 26:1-6 & 12-33 The Message Paraphrase 1 There was a famine in the land, as bad as the famine during the time of Abraham. And Isaac went down to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, in Gerar. 2-5 God appeared to him and said, "Don't go down to Egypt; stay where I tell you. Stay here in this land and I'll be with you and bless you. I'm giving you and your children all these lands, fulfilling the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. I'll make your descendants as many as the stars in the sky and give them all these lands. All the nations of the Earth will get a blessing for themselves through your descendants. And why? Because Abraham obeyed my summons and kept my charge—my commands, my guidelines, my teachings." 6 So Isaac stayed put in Gerar. ... 12-15 Isaac planted crops in that land and took in a huge harvest. God blessed him. The man got richer and richer by the day until he was very wealthy. He accumulated flocks and herds and many,

Genesis 24:34-41 The servant said, "I'm the servant of Abraham. God has blessed my master—he's a great man; God has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, servants and maidservants, camels and donkeys. And then to top it off, Sarah, my master's wife, gave him a son in her old age and he has passed everything on to his son. My master made me promise, 'Don't get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites in whose land I live. No, go to my father's home, back to my family, and get a wife for my son there.' I said to my master, 'But what if the woman won't come with me?' He said, 'God before whom I've walked faithfully will send his angel with you and he'll make things work out so that you'll bring back a wife for my son from my family, from the house of my father. Then you'll be free from the oath. If you go to my family and they won't give her to you, you will also be free from the oath.' Take i

Genesis 29:29-31 Rebekah had a brother named Laban. Laban ran outside to the man at the spring. He had seen the nose ring and the bracelets on his sister and had heard her say, "The man said this and this and this to me." So he went to the man and there he was, still standing with his camels at the spring. Laban welcomed him: "Come on in, blessed of God! Why are you standing out here? I've got the house ready for you; and there's also a place for your camels." Take it deeper... So while continuing to read the book of Genesis, I came upon this scripture that struck me interestingly. This is the story of how Abraham's servant, under the last request of Abraham himself, went out to find a wife for Isaac, the son of the covenant. Abraham wanted his son to marry a woman of the same heritage. She had to be the right person and the possibility that they would find her was slim to none! He finds this young lady that meets the qualifications God tells him

You know the days I am talking about, those days you just fail! Now I unlike most of you, probably have done it multiple times a day in multiple different ways. I opened my mouth and promptly put my foot in it... But what am I talking about! You probably have never done that right? Before you unsubscribe, and unfriend me on Facebook, hear me out. God does have a point to make in this... and in fact, it's probably not the same point you may be thinking. I have a friend, who I related some news to. Now the news was intended to be good news, but in the process, I completely screwed up how I was conveying it. That's a good reason why digital space is so difficult, you can't really tell the intention of someone unless it is overly obvious. So back to my story. I was thinking the person would be happy, but because of the way I said what I was relating to them, they misunderstood and actually called me to the carpet (in love... I don't believe this person could act in any ot

I opened my message bible again today for the first time in a week... Don't get me wrong, I have been reading my bible, but have read it through different translations on biblegateway... Anyways, I opened it up to where i had left off and it was the story of Abraham entering into the covenant. God told Abraham all the cool promises and then asked him to chop off his foreskin (circumcision). It reminds me that often we look at all the promises and forget that there is some pain involved. Selah... God wants us to be in relationship to Him. He wants us to get a hold of the promises. He wants us to enjoy life (John 10:10b) "in all its fulness." But what He doesn't do is promise that there won't be any pain or sacrifice along the way. In fact, every one of us must make a similar sacrifice in our lives if we are to be adopted into the covenant. The sacrifice of Lordship of our lives... We MUST give up our will, our ideas, our thoughts, and even our physical lives,

Romans 8:32 NIV “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” Genesis 17:15-22 15-16 God continued speaking to Abraham, "And Sarai your wife: Don't call her Sarai any longer; call her Sarah. I'll bless her—yes! I'll give you a son by her! Oh, how I'll bless her! Nations will come from her; kings of nations will come from her." 17 Abraham fell flat on his face. And then he laughed, thinking, "Can a hundred-year-old man father a son? And can Sarah, at ninety years, have a baby?" 18 Recovering, Abraham said to God, "Oh, keep Ishmael alive and well before you!" 19 But God said, "That's not what I mean. Your wife, Sarah, will have a baby, a son. Name him Isaac (Laughter). I'll establish my covenant with him and his descendants, a covenant that lasts forever. 20-21 "And Ishmael? Yes, I heard your prayer for him. I'll als

Been a little bit since God shared some new insight with me... I have been on a mini vacation, enjoying the beauty of the Oregon Coast with my VERY pregnant wife. One thing that has struck me is how easily people are willing to sow negative talk into our families and into our own lives. Lately, God has been taking me on a journey through my life, but from a different perspective. Now, going back through your life can be hard, but reflection is necessary to see where you have been and see clearly what choices lead you there. While I believe the link from choice to consequence can often be clouded in complexity, I also believe that if you trace the consequences back far enough, you will find 1 choice that was made. As I think back through my life and some of the decisions I made, I realized that the decisions I made were based solely on how I was raised. Many of them were conditioned from years of being trained. Many of them were good, like the choices to be responsible and to work h

Proverbs 2:1-8 1 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, 2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding— 3 indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, 4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, 5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. 6 For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. 7 He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, 8 for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. My wife and I are in the process of looking for a house. We started toying with the idea last week and decided to just dive in and see where it takes us... Well, in the process of looking, I have had this lingering feeling of fear. Now I know what the bible says about fear. We are not to be people of fear, but somet

Psalm 18 I will love You, O LORD, my strength. 2 The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 3 I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies. 4 The pangs of death surrounded me, And the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. 5 The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me. 6 In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, And my cry came before Him, even to His ears. 7 Then the earth shook and trembled; The foundations of the hills also quaked and were shaken, Because He was angry. 8 Smoke went up from His nostrils, And devouring fire from His mouth; Coals were kindled by it. 9 He bowed the heavens also, and

My High school sports stories • Tried sports- Kicked off C-Team bball • Tried track, but couldn’t run very well • End up doing Wrestling. • Loved it • Physical contact, high energy, high drama • Last home match of the year, pinned a guy on varsity 24-25 But Jacob stayed behind by himself, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he couldn't get the best of Jacob as they wrestled, he deliberately threw Jacob's hip out of joint. There are some things that we are dealing with emotionally, or otherwise, that are strong, tough adversaries. How then, when we are right in the middle of it, do we wrestle victory from the Jaws of defeat? 1. Understand that we are in a fight and fight the enemy. In this case, Jacob was actually fighting the good guys. It strikes me now how many times we as the BODY of Christ fight each other. This denomination says that this one is bad, the bad one says “we’re not as bad as these guys over here.” My worship pastor

My wife and I were chatting this morning before I left for work. During the course of the conversation, we were talking about a friend of ours. As we were talking, we were talking about the attitude of the person in specific and how the person seemed very "off" lately. As we were talking, I came to the understanding that not everyone likes change. But as I prayed more, on my way to work, God gave me a revelation that was very cool! He told me, "If you are not liking change its because you are stuck in your ways." WOW! So what God was telling me was that as human beings, corrupted by sin as we are, we want to stay the same. Now it says in Malachi that God doesn't change, but if you look in the bible, there are literally hundreds of times that God changes circumstances. The way I usually tell people is: "God doesn't change, but He AUTHORS change." So in essence, God was saying to me that if we are not liking the idea of change its because we are

James 3:3-10 3-5A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it! 5-6It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell. 7-10This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can't tame a tongue—it's never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth! 10-12My friends, this can't go on. A spring doesn't gush fresh water one day and bracki

Exposure to the Elements John 3:16-20 16-18"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him. 19-21"This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it

Its interesting when you go back and listen to some of the things that I used to listen to, sermons etc, from people and bands that used to shape me. As I look at them now, I realize how shallow I was, how little I grew, how much God was wanting to grow up! So I did something silly, I listened to a podcast. As I listened to the person speak, their voice dripping with practiced sincerity, God quickly reminded me of something. "If you are going to be a minister of reconciliation, you need to start by reconciling your mind." What he meant was instead of being mad at the person, and/or making jokes or insults about the person, love them. You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’[a] and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies![b] Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. Matth

Paradox-a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth. I have been on a quest to read through the message bible. I have done quite a lot of it already, but when I got to Psalms and Proverbs, something so profound struck me that I had to share. If you read Psalm 18:7-50 and into Chapter 19 in the message paraphrase, you'll see David talking about just how big God is. Two things hit me at the same time I was reading this set of verses. The first is just how huge God is. It says that when he steps down the earth literally doesn't have enough room for him, so it creates an abyss in the sea. But the next thought was all the promises that God gave us (me) regarding who we are. His children. Have you ever felt safe? Have you ever felt confident in someone else's ability to keep you together? This same huge, inexhaustibly large, infinitely complex God cares for us. I don't think the way you think. The

Today's blog is a short one.. Just was thinking about my blog title, "Ministering Reconciliation." Did you know that Reconciliation is about restoring harmony and balance? We often think of it as fixing the problem. But in reality, its not anything to do with fixing. Its more to do with balancing. Making things equitable and making them work. God could have VERY EASILY fixed humanity and removed sin. But instead He sent Jesus. WHY? To restore balance. He "fixed the glitch." (Office space). When we deal with people, we have to understand that who a person is and what they do are different. Who a person is motivates them to do things, sure, but we have to treat the root cause, not the symptoms. Its like "doing CPR on a gunshot wound to the head." (Sarge, Red Vs. Blue). It doesn't work, and whats more is it gives us a shallow view of who people really are. We were created in the likeness of God. Triune beings created by a Triune God. God gave us

SO its been awhile since I blogged so I want to add a new blog and give you some updates on me. My progress for reading through the bible, I finished the new testament and now I am in Psalms. So here goes. But God hasn't moved to the mountains; his holy address hasn't changed. He's in charge, as always, his eyes taking everything in, his eyelids Unblinking, examining Adam's unruly brood inside and out, not missing a thing. He tests the good and the bad alike; if anyone cheats, God's outraged. Fail the test and you're out, out in a hail of firestones, Drinking from a canteen filled with hot desert wind. 7 God's business is putting things right; he loves getting the lines straight, Setting us straight. Once we're standing tall, we can look him straight in the eye. Psalm 11:4-7 This Psalm David reminds us that God's business is putting things right. It's pretty incredible, because David sets up this idea that God is like a Chirop

  1-2 I, Peter, am an apostle on assignment by Jesus, the Messiah, writing to exiles scattered to the four winds. Not one is missing, not one forgotten. God the Father has his eye on each of you, and has determined by the work of the Spirit to keep you obedient through the sacrifice of Jesus. May everything good from God be yours! ( 1 Peter 1:1-2 , The Message ) So in this verse, I was immediately drawn to the part where Peter says, "God the Father has his eye on each of you..." It instantaneously stirs an image of a suspicious father watching a would be suitor for his daughter. Most often, you'll here something to the effect of "I've got my eye on you." While that statement is meant to inspire fear, Peter is using it to inspire a confidence... He says that God has "determined" to keep us. That word in the King James is "Sanctification." That process is not just a cleansing process, but a keeping. It would be like if you got a cut as

19-21Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God's righteousness doesn't grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life. 22-24Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don't act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like. 25But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action. 26-27Anyone who sets himself up as &quo

11-14I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you've picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby's milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God's ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong. Hebrews 5:11-14 I made it through 1 & 2 Timothy, and Titus, now onto Hebrews. As I was reading through Hebrews the last two days, I noted a recurring theme. The writer telling people to LISTEN! Because this was a letter, I am almost positive that he was referring spiritually paying attention, listening to the Holy Spirit's guidance. Yet We find the pockets of Hebrews throughout the Roman empire are STILL not listening. The writer chastises them here in this portion of scrip

4-8But friends, you're not in the dark, so how could you be taken off guard by any of this? You're sons of Light, daughters of Day. We live under wide open skies and know where we stand. So let's not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let's keep our eyes open and be smart. People sleep at night and get drunk at night. But not us! Since we're creatures of Day, let's act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation. 1 Thessalonians 5:4-8 Some of you may read the title and wonder what in the world I am talking about. In my journey through the message bible this year, I am in 1 Thessalonians. I read this scripture and God quickened it to my heart and I thought I should share. While I don't have any experience with sleepwalking personally, I do like to sleep. I am a fairly "active" person and have been since birth. My mom would tell you freely that when I was little, My feet would hit the gro

3-5God tested us thoroughly to make sure we were qualified to be trusted with this Message. Be assured that when we speak to you we're not after crowd approval—only God approval. Since we've been put through that battery of tests, you're guaranteed that both we and the Message are free of error, mixed motives, or hidden agendas. We never used words to butter you up. No one knows that better than you. And God knows we never used words as a smoke screen to take advantage of you. 6-8Even though we had some standing as Christ's apostles, we never threw our weight around or tried to come across as important, with you or anyone else. We weren't aloof with you. We took you just as you were. We were never patronizing, never condescending, but we cared for you the way a mother cares for her children. We loved you dearly. Not content to just pass on the Message, we wanted to give you our hearts. And we did. 1 Thessalonians 2:3-8 I want to clarify what I am talking about

Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven't stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that you'll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us. 13-14God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He's set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating. Colossians 1:9-14