Ministering reconciliation...

Restore unto me the joy of your salvation. Restore unto me the joy of your salvation... This phrase somehow echoed a thousand times last night as feelings of betrayal, frustration, discontent swept over me. Somehow, these feelings have made their home in me the last few months. Without my knowledge, without my permission, just coming in making my stomach churn and my head reel. They began to leach away from me all the joy, all the hope, and all the positive pieces that were so evident. As I began to think more and more, I realized two things... 1. Christ felt this way....Why should I expect not to? 2. My life was slowly being taken away from me by these thoughts and emotions that were there. Last night, on the way home from disappointment, from feeling maligned, my wife reminded me of some things. "You don't need approval from anyone but God, work for him alone." I told her that I wanted to, but somehow, that didn't help me cope with the emotions. As I did what I ...

Last night, my beautiful wife Amber and I went to look at an apartment. We have this conundrum. The decision to move from our place or stay is what we are wrestling with. We looked at one floor plan which, despite adding nearly 100 sq. ft, seemed smaller than our current one bedroom. With the thoughts of, "Will this work if we have a child in the next year?" or, "What will guests think?" We complain about how small a place we are living in and want to move because the neighbors are too loud. We go and look for a different place and complain more about the price change. Of these questions, something came to my head as it relates to Christianity. We, as Christians, go to church with the idea that we live in a one bedroom. We complain about the size of the church; too many people, too few not enough stuff. Or, worse yet, we look to move out because the worship is too loud, or God is asking us to make too many changes that COST us what we feel is too much. In John 15,...