The Times They Are A-Changin'

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

Bob Dylan -- The Times They Are A-Changin'

As 2012 comes to a close I thought I would take a few minutes to reflect the state of America, Heartland Church and maybe a personal observation or two.  So forgive me in advance if this is a bit rambling.

On America.

Maybe its just me, but I am not sure that America has been more divided as a country since the Civil War.  Great debates are raging about a variety of social and economic issues -- from taxation, to the role of government, to gay marriage, to gun control.  There seems to be little consensus on anything anymore.  In fact, the very definition of "freedom" seems to be in flux.  Is freedom of religion, for example, the right to freely practice your religion or the right to be free from religion entirely?  On that issue, check out this opinion piece from CNN today complaining about people publicly turning to God in the wake of tragedies like the one that took place in Newtown.  Why Must The Nation Grieve With God?

There is at least one thing, though, that I think we can all agree on -- and that is that the times they are a-changin'.  The fact is that American attitudes are changing at unprecedented speed, and our culture is changing right along with those attitudes.  You can like it or not like it -- but that is reality.  Really, this has been our reality for the last 50 years.

For some of us, this incredible social, political and economic change is progress -- it is the inevitable result of social evolution.  In fact, here is a CNN piece that also came out today focusing on social "progress" in the areas of gun control, gay marriage and taxation.  2013: America on the Cusp of Social Change.

For others, these changes (or some of them) are evidence of a nation that increasingly is turning its back on God.  I wrote a blog about the consequences of a nation turning its back on God a while back called God Has Left the Plane.  

Interestingly, Mike Huckabee (former pastor, governor and presidential candidate) has publicly linked what happened in Newtown to God being removed from our schools.  Huckabee on Fox.  In this day and age of social, political and economic change, I guess its not surprising that Huckabee has taken a good deal of heat for that opinion/observation.

Changing gears a bit (I warned you I might ramble), while I think Mr. Huckabee's comments were made tastefully, and while I do not necessarily disagree with them, I think we need to be very careful before we link specific national tragedies to the sins of America. Other Christians have been quick to blame Newtown and other tragedies on our abandonment of God, and have done so quickly and in harsh tones.

But, I think our responsibility as Christians in the immediate aftermath of such tragedies is simply to be loving and caring.  The country will not listen to preaching in the midst of these types of tragedies, and we can do far more good by simply reaching out and being good neighbors.  There will be a time for reflection.  

Beyond that, it really doesn't make sense to try to draw conclusions from a single event.  The sign of a nation left by God to its own devices is not a single event -- not even something as unimaginable as 911.  

Make no mistake -- I do think that we are turning our back on God as a country, and I think that there have been and will continue to be consequences for doing so.  It probably started with Bob Dylan -- one of my heroes during high school and college. ...  Just kidding! ... Sort of!  But, I also think that there is hope.  I don't think its too late for us to return to Him.  But, to do so will require a lot of love -- and the full armor of God!!  See Ephesians 6:10-18.

On Heartland Church.

2012 was a great year at Heartland Church.  But, I definitely think the best is yet to come.  

I have been amazed at the grace by which Pastor Dan has handled his bout with cancer.  Thank God that it was caught early!!

Maybe its just me, but I also really believe that PD is just hitting his stride as a lead pastor.  It just seems like God has really been speaking into him this year in a new way and, as a consequence, the church is on an incredible course.  I have always been in awe of Pastor Dan's love for the flock that has been entrusted to him.  But this year I have seen an increased focus on impacting the outside world for Christ, and I am extremely excited to see how that unfolds in the future.

I also keep hearing great things about what Pastor Dusty is doing in Elevate, and his Reveal conference just keeps getting better and better -- and bigger and bigger.  In fact, I think in the near future the conference will be way too big to be held at the HC campus -- even after the new construction is completed!!  

But as great as the past has been, I think we need to anticipate God doing even greater things in the future -- and not just at HC, but across the globe.  When we truly humble ourselves God inevitably shows up.  And, this is the time for the church, for God's people, to do just that.

The world needs the church perhaps more than ever before.  We are at a turning point.  Things are definitely changing.  But to see the fullness of what God can do means we must surrender fully to His will.  We need to remember that the Bible is a radical document -- that we are called to radical obedience, radical faith and a radical life lived for Christ.  It is my prayer that HC continues to relentlessly pursue God's will for us, and that He, in turn, will continue to guide us on this incredible journey.

Personal Notes.

I am, without a doubt, a blessed man.  I wake up every morning thankful for all that God has done for me.  

I am grateful to Pastor Dan, Pastor Dusty and the rest of the Executive Staff at HC for allowing me to be a part of this ministry.  It really is humbling to serve with such a talented and God-driven group of people.

I have a great wife and great kids.  Here is a little blog I wrote about Pam a while back, if you want to know a little about her.  Pam.  It would have been enough if Pam was merely supportive of my career change, but she is actually excited and passionate about where God is taking us.  Amazing.

But, lately I have been asking myself a question that I think all of us should contemplate from time-to-time.  And that is this:  If God has given me every blessing He intends for me to have, would it be enough?  Would it be enough, or would I somehow feel cheated, slighted or ungrateful.

I have been asking this question because, at the end of the day, although God is incredibly good to us, shouldn't the sacrifice on the cross -- the price of our salvation -- be good enough?  Shouldn't that incredible gift be blessing enough?

Don't get me wrong -- I am extremely grateful that God didn't stop there and that He has blessed me in so many other ways.  I just think that the blessing of the cross should put everything else in perspective for us.  

In his first letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul said "[f]or I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."  In other words, Paul was saying that he wanted to keep "Christ and him crucified" as his focus -- everything else was incidental.  I want to get to the place where I feel that way about God's blessings.  At the end of the day, what really matters apart from the Cross?

Finally, I just want to say thank you to all my family and friends who have been part of my life in 2012.  What a year it has been.  I have seen God do so many great things on Saturday morning with the men, on Wednesday night at our Bible study, on Tuesday nights with our life group, and on Sundays in the sanctuary.  This next year, God willing, we will add Celebrate Recovery to that list!


God bless you all in 2013.

Class of '78

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to meet up in Bedford with some friends from high school.  I had  not seen most of these folks since the day we graduated in 1978.  Meeting up in Bedford Texas was a little strange all by itself, when you consider the fact that our high school is about 1,400 miles from the site of our mini-reunion.  Bedford Texas is definitely a long way from Whittier California -- and not just geographically!

It was great to catch up, to reminisce about the old days, and just to be around people who had once been a regular part of my life.  It is amazing how quickly time has gone by.  It is amazing how much has changed.  It is even more amazing that, even with the passage of nearly 35 years, everyone still seemed so familiar.

One thing that struck me on this particular day was how many of my old classmates have turned out to be people of faith.  I noticed that on Facebook over the last couple of years as people from high school became my "cyber friends," and that impression was reinforced when this group of people met in person.

Honestly, I am not quite sure what to make of it.  I really don't remember "faith" being a matter of any significance to most of my classmates when I was in high school -- it certainly was not to me at the time.  I wonder whether it was there all the time and I just missed it, or whether, like me, many of my classmates were transformed later in life.  I wonder whether it is a function of us getting older and wiser.  Maybe we are getting to an age where we just better understand the priorities in life.

Whatever it may be, I praise God for what He has done with so many of my classmates.  It is incredibly inspiring.  I also can't believe how many folks from La Serna have taken the time to say a few words of support and encouragement for what I am doing in the ministry.

Another thing that came to mind when we this group got together was the reminder that life is a vapor.  About a week before our mini-reunion, one of the truly nice guys in our class passed away unexpectedly.  And, in the ensuing Facebook traffic folks listed a number of other people in my class who had gone home way too early in life.  It was pretty sobering.

Our time is short.  Which is to say that our time on earth to serve God -- to tell people about the gospel and to disciple believers -- is short.  I will be posting about that again in a few days.

God bless.  Have a great Christmas my friends!

    

RGIII

Tim Tebow Kurt Warner Jeremy Lin Robert Griffin III David Robinson Josh Hamilton Albert Pujols Mariano Rivera

For some reason it has become controversial for professional athletes (in fact, for anyone with any degree of fame) to profess their faith in Jesus Christ.  Apparently, some people are offended when God ventures anywhere outside of the church.  God, it seems, just doesn't belong on a football field or a basketball court -- and certainly not on ESPN.

Once upon a time the focus was just to get God out of government and out of our schools.  No Ten Commandments and no Nativity scenes.  And then they started looking to get rid of signs and mentions of God in obscure public places -- like a cross in the middle of the desert or on a remote mountain top.  

Now the goal seems to be to remove God from any public context.  Professions of Christ come at a cost.

Having said that, there is a sense in which it seems strange to me that people with a public profile feel the need to share their faith.  To me, that says a great deal about who and what we have become.  When public figures take the time to share their Christian faith, it is because they believe that their faith sets them apart from others.  It marks them as unusual -- as outside of the norm.  And sadly, that is exactly what they are.

When I was young I remember there being a distinct effort to cast sports heroes as role models -- their on-the-field performance being intentionally connected to their character (at least as marketed).  Today, in contrast, our sports heroes are defined almost exclusively by their performance on the field -- little thought is given to the quality of their character.  We welcome the likes of Ben Roethlisberger and Michael Vick back with open arms as long as they perform; requiring only that they give lip service to some sort of remorse for sometimes astounding off-the-field actions.  Tiger Woods can still be paid millions and receive our adoration as long as he keeps making those birdies.

Look, I know that Tim Tebow will never be the greatest quarterback ever to have played the game.  Far from it.  But I personally think winning a Super Bowl is nothing compared to what he has already accomplished.  I appreciate greatly those public figures who desire to give glory to God -- and who are willing to accept the consequences of doing so.  I thank God for men and women who are willing to show a troubled generation that godly men and women don't have to finish last.

         

Robert Griffin III

“Whenever you can be a Christian and come to a Christian university like Baylor and make a difference like this whole football team has, it’s great. He gives you the stage to make a difference and not to just talk about yourself, but lift Him up. There are a lot of different types of Christians everywhere, but my biggest thing is it’s not our job to judge; it’s just our job to go out, praise Him, let people know what He’s doing, and let people follow if they want to."

“So I praise God, I thank him for everything. Purposefully, you live every day for Him, and when He gives you the opportunity to speak up for Him or to do something in His name, you do it.”



Mariano Rivera

"Every time I was going through a hard time, somebody was there to help. It's not too often when you play in the minor leagues that a coach will tell you he will take care of your son while you stay with your wife at the hospital. My pitching coach did that, and one lady from Panama-I never knew her (before)-offered to stay with my wife while I was playing. Even though I had nobody here, I was never alone. That made me accept Jesus as my Savior. I knew it wasn't a coincidence. It was the Lord putting someone there for me."

Jeremy Lin

"I realize I had to learn ... to stop chasing the perishable prizes of this earth ... and give my best effort unto God and trust Him with the results."



David Robinson

"This championship is gratifying on so many levels. One of them is that Avery (teammate and fellow Christian Avery Johnson) and I have given evidence that having a strong religious faith doesn't mean that you can't be a tough competitor."


Kurt Warner

"When you stand up and say, 'Thank You, Jesus,' they think you are saying, 'Thank You for being here. Thank You for moving my arm forward and making the ball go into that guy's hands so that we could score a touchdown and win the game.' But, in essence, it is a matter of thanking Him for the opportunity, thanking Him for being there in my life, for being the stronghold, for being the focus and the strength to accomplish all things, to accomplish anything, and to be where I am at, to have gone through everything I have gone through. It is a constant thing in my life. It is not just for something specific He did on the football field to help us win; it is for everything that He has done in my life up to that point and for everything He will continue to do in my life from here until eternity."

Josh Hamilton 

“Understanding where I was before Christ came into my life, understanding where I am now and staying humble is not very hard for me to do. I just use this as a bigger platform to share Christ with people. That’s what it’s about. Whatever gift you have, no matter what it is, it’s all for God’s glory. I’m just excited to be here, again, and be able to share Him with a lot of people.”


Tim Tebow

“People often seem to think that when you're following the Lord and trying to do His will, your path will always be clear, the decisions smooth and easy, and life will be lived happily ever after and all that. Sometimes that may be true, but I've found that more often, it's not. The muddled decisions still seem muddled, bad things still happen to believers, and great things can happen to nonbelievers. When it comes to making our decisions, the key that God is concerned with is that we are trusting and seeking Him. God's desire is for us to align our lives with His Word and His will.”


Albert Pujols

“It doesn’t matter if I hit a home run. It doesn’t matter if we win a game. It doesn’t matter if I go four for four,” Pujols says. “Whatever happens at the end of the day, as long as I glorify His name, that’s what it’s all about.”

The Prodigal's Brother

I have been reading a book at the suggestion of Pastor Dan called "The Prodigal God."  The book is fairly short and fairly simple, but it is also an excellent reminder of a profound truth.

If you turn to Luke chapter 15, verse 11, you will likely find a heading just above that reads something like "Jesus tells the Parable of the Lost Son" or "The Prodigal Son" depending on the version of the Bible you are reading.  We tend to think of this well-known parable as being about God's mercy and grace toward the lost -- and it certainly is about that.  The Point of "The Prodigal God," though, is that the parable is not just about one son, but two.  

In fact, the parable arguably is more focused on the prodigal's brother than on the prodigal himself.  The event leading to Jesus telling this parable was the grumbling of the Pharisees about Jesus spending time with tax collectors and sinners.  In response to this, Jesus actually told three parables -- this one being the last.  Importantly, Jesus is not speaking so much to the sinners and tax collectors, as He is the Pharisees.

The emphasis of the story is not so much on God's grace toward the return of the disobedient and wayward brother, as it is on the good and obedient brother's reaction to his father's mercy.  You see, when the lost brother returned, the older brother who had served his father faithfully all along did not share in his father's joy.  Quite to the contrary.  The father put on a great celebration, but the older brother refused even to go in.

²⁸ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. ²⁹ But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰ But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

³¹ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. ³² But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

Luke 15:28-31.

Jesus in fact was dealing with two sins here.  The younger brother was disobedient and, indeed, turned his back on his father.  He was lost.  But the sin of the older brother was more pernicious.  He was religious.

We could spend a good deal of time talking about what I mean by religious, but at bottom its a heart thing.  God wants us to love Him.  He is not too excited about people who claim spiritual superiority.  He certainly doesn't appreciate arrogance.

But, one of the problems with a religious spirit -- one of the reasons that this sin is particularly dangerous -- is that it is subtle.  It sneaks up on us.  We often don't recognize it in ourselves.  It is an infection that often spreads slowly, has no early symptoms and indeed mimics for a time a love for God.

Now, I want to let you in on a little secret.  I love God and I love people (but that, I hope, is not the secret).  The truth is that there are times when I am infected by a religious spirit.  There are times when a sense of spiritual superiority sneaks up on me unrecognized.  Well, at least unrecognized by me!

But, I thank God that I have a wife who is quick to recognize that spirit when it finds me, and not at all bashful about telling me when I am acting or thinking like a jackass.  And, you know what -- we all need someone like Pam in our lives.  I am praying that God will continue to work any religious spirit out of me.  But until He does, I will continue to thank Him for putting Pam and others in my life who are willing to be honest with me.

And, by the way, one of the other reasons that a religious spirit is so dangerous is that it causes people to turn away from God or keeps them from finding Christ in the first place.  When others see a religious spirit in us, it just plain makes Christianity look unappealing.  Our purpose is to draw people toward Christ -- not to push them away.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

15 Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. ² But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

³ Then Jesus told them this parable: ⁴ “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? ⁵ And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶ and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ ⁷ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

The Parable of the Lost Coin

⁸ “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹ And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’^(H) 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

The Parable of the Lost Son

¹¹ Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. ¹² The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them.

¹³ “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴ After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.¹⁶ He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

¹⁷ “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸ I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ ²⁰ So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

²¹ “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

²² “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³ Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴ For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

²⁵ “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ²⁷ ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

²⁸ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. ²⁹ But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰ But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

³¹ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. ³² But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

Luke 15


   

Zeal

Zeal: eagerness and ardent interest in pursuit of something : FERVOR

synonyms see PASSION

Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary.

From time to time I need to remind myself of the radical nature of the gospel message.  I need to remind myself that God wants us to be fully and completely devoted to Him.  I need to remind myself that transformation should always be taking place in my life.  I need to remind myself that any worldly achievements I have attained mean nothing -- indeed are a loss -- "compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ."  Philippians 3:4-11.

There are, I suppose, a great number of reasons why we get off track sometimes.  One of the most common I think is that eagerly pursuing Christ is real work.  It is not always easy.  It requires a certain discipline.

Every Saturday morning around 7:30 I get together with twenty or so men at Heartland Church to worship, pray, study the Bible and fellowship.  Once in a great while I will lead the teaching, but most of the time I leave that to others.  It is not that I do not like teaching.  To the contrary, teaching God's word is a great passion of mine.

But, Saturday mornings have become a time of real refreshing for me.  I look forward to being in God's presence on Saturday mornings.  I am moved by the growth I see in the men who show up week after week.  I am excited about their zeal for Christ!  

Make no mistake about it, getting up that early on the one morning most of us have to relax or even sleep in is a sacrifice.  It requires a certain discipline, and more so a real passion for pursuing God.  And, there have been plenty of Saturday mornings when the sound of the alarm going off at 6:30 a.m. did not immediately result in great excitement for me.  In fact, on any number of those mornings I had trouble finding the will to drag myself out of bed.

But the other side of that coin is that in over a year of doing this I have never left church Saturday morning without experiencing God in a powerful way.  There has never been one Saturday morning when I left the church disappointed.  There has not been one time when we finished our time together and I thought it would have been better to sleep in.

You see, Paul was right in his letter to the Philippians.  There just isn't anything that surpasses the greatness of knowing Christ.  But the key is that to truly know Christ requires that we have a passion to pursue Him.  It takes work.  It takes sacrifice. 

The End Times 3 -- The Harbinger

²⁰ The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. ²¹ Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.

Revelation 9:20-21.

As I said in one of my earlier posts, there are a whole lot of people these days who think that the End Times are closing in on us.  I also noted that many generations have believed that they would see Christ return -- only to be disappointed.  Yet, at some point a generation will come that will say "the end is near" and, unlike every generation before it, they will be right.  Who knows -- this could well be that generation.

What I can say with certainty, though, is that whether the end is near or not men will continue to resist God's will, men will experience the consequences of their refusal to submit to Him, and men will refuse to repent.  It is a cycle that has persisted from the beginning.  It is a cycle that will persist to the end.

I am in the middle of reading a book called "The Harbinger" which I picked up at the suggestion of my wife.  The book has some theological question marks to be sure.  But, the fundamental premise is quite sound.

The fundamental question The Harbinger seeks to answer is what happens when a nation turns its back on God.  In fact, I think that one of the reasons the end seems near to many in this country is that they have lost hope in America.  Every year, our nation seems to pull further and further away from God.  Every year, the world around us seems to get darker and darker.

Earlier tonight a friend asked me this question:

• Why do you think it is that God puts us in charge of our own eternal destiny? We are not in charge of being born, but we are given the choice of where to spend eternity.Why would He do this when He knows we're made with limited understanding, doubt, susceptibility to Satan's lies, human ignorance, and pride. He knows our human frailties and limitations. Sometimes I think He's given us too much power in this choice....this free will. Free will seems more like a trick, or a test, than a "gift" as we evangelicals like to think of it.

I think this is a really great question, and one which I may try to deal with in a later blog.  But there is a related question of equal importance, which is why would men turn their back on God knowing the consequences of doing so?  Or, for that matter, why would a nation turn its back on God knowing the consequences of doing so?

Make no mistake about it, in either case the consequence of turning our back on God is "wrath."  I know, I know -- we don't like to talk about wrath anymore.  But, that's the reality.  Its biblical.  When we turn our back on God we should not expect a "time out" -- we should expect wrath.  And, I am afraid that if the United States doesn't get its act together soon wrath is coming.      

I hope I am wrong.


¹⁸ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Romans 1:18-23 (NIV)

My Life

Four and a half years ago I agreed to serve as the Executive Pastor of Heartland Church.  I knew going in that life was going to change.  But, in retrospect, I really had no clue about what the future held.  I had no real appreciation for where God was leading me and my family.

At first, it was mostly a matter of trying to figure out how to juggle life as a full-time lawyer and part-time pastor and still have time for family and friends.  Of course, I also had a lot to learn about how churches operate -- things like budgets and policies and personnel.  But, as I would soon find out, things were about to change -- and quickly.  

The first year and a half or so also presented more and greater challenges that I could possibly have anticipated.  And, I was in all honesty ill-prepared for some of those challenges.   Thank God for the support of my wife, John and Sherry Ferris and others during those times.  Thank God that at the end of those challenges we found the church thriving in Carrollton!  His plan, as it turned out, was far better than any plan we could have conceived.

What has been most surprising to me, though, is how God has drawn me into the ministry part of the church and not just into the business and administration.  I have been caught completely off guard by God's willingness to use someone like me to minister to other people and occasionally even to preach the Word.  

Its funny, but every time I thought that things would stabilize and become routine some new change or challenge would come along.  In fact, if I have learned anything over the last four and a half years, it is that when you are really pursuing God's will, individually or collectively as a church, you should expect just about anything other than stability and comfort.  We serve a God who is deeply interested in our personal growth, and personal growth always means change (and usually includes growing pains!).

And, this brings me to my most recent change -- and probably the most drastic yet.  After a great deal of thought and prayer, Pam and I have decided that I will very soon switch from full-time lawyer and part-time pastor to full-time pastor and part-time lawyer.

Ten years ago if you had said that I would become a pastor some day I would have said you were crazy.  Four years ago if you would have said that I would be a full time pastor in less than five years I would have said that was absurd.  As I said, I have come to expect the unexpected, and try not to guess anymore about how God's plan might unfold.

As many of you know, I never set out to be a pastor.  And, at times all of these changes in my life are still a bit unsettling to me.  But, at the same time, I am convinced that I am called to this life.  I am convinced that I am operating in God's will.  And, that is a good place to be.

I am deeply appreciative of Pastor Dan's trust in me, and am excited about my continuing service at Heartland Church.  For that matter, I am excited about all that God is doing at Heartland Church!

Pam and I are so thankful for the encouragement and support we have gotten from so many of you.  You will never know what that means to us.  Please continue to pray for us as we enter into this new season in our lives.

Good things are happening!!

God bless.