Passion Burns Within » family

PATIENCE

passionburnswithin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:02:43 +0000

In today’s “give it to me now” culture, Patience is a lost art form. We want our food faster, our information faster our degrees faster and our success faster. But not only do we want it faster we always want it our way. The motto for this generation could be “give it to me my way, right away”. But the Bible tells us that patience is included in the fruit of the Spirit. That means in the course of our spiritual lives and in our journey to become closer and more like Christ that we must cultivate this virtue within ourselves. John F Newton said “Be patient enough to live one day at a time as Jesus taught us letting yesterday go and leaving tomorrow till it arrives” . These are great words of wisdom that we should take note of. But let’s not ignore the most important authority, The Bible.

Here are a few verses on Patience

Romans 8:25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience….

Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

2 Thessalonians 3:5 And may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.

I want to look at a few different aspects of patience. Adel Bestavros said “Patience with others is Love, patience with Self is hope and Patience with God is faith” I think this sets up a great framework on which to look at Patience.

Patience with OTHERS is LOVE- Let’s face it everyone screws up and dissapoints at some point. As we go through life those closest to us will make mistakes. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13:4 that love is patient. When you love someone you are able to look past their faults and realize that they have possess qualities that make them worthy of your devotion. Great friendships, marriages and families are built around this idea.

Patience with SELF is HOPE – This is an area I struggle in. We all have aspirations dreams and desires for ourselves and no one likes to fail. Yet time and time again as we try to achieve what we believe we want we fall short. Whether these shortcomings are in academics, athletics, romance or in our profession it matters not everyone of us will wind up falling flat on our face. These failures take there toll on us and we can beat ourselves up. We can’t understand and begin to question our self worth. Patience gives us hope. A hope that if not today then maybe tomorrow or maybe further down the road but it will happen and can happen. Our dreams may only come to fruition with much dedication and work but the hope of another day will push us on.

Patience with GOD is FAITH- Wow…. How many times have you demanded an answer from God. Or expected God to give you what you wanted when you wanted. Yeah…. me too. But god doesn’t work on our timeline He has much greater things in mind. The hard thing for us is that He doesn’t send us a memo or share with us a PowerPoint demonstrating his 5 step plan to get us where we need to be. Rather, He asks us to trust in Him fully and wait and see. Patient faith can be one of the most excruciating things to master but it is one of the most valuable

The common thread in all of these is sacrifice. To truly practice patience you need to deny yourself. We don’t like sacrifice that is why patience is out of style. Again we want to have everything our way right away, We are self absorbed and until we learn to let that go we are in for major issues.

The Power Of Facebook

passionburnswithin — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 23:48:37 +0000

It is no secret I love facebook and twitter. I update my status more than anyone know. FB stays open in some window at all times when i am on the computer. I play games and send messages. I use it for work and for school and for fellowship. I talk to other youth pastors across the country and ask advice and give encouragement as well. It has been a great source of entertainment and relaxation. But what I never realized was the power facebook had to unite people or reunite people.

It has only been a short year and there have already been two miracles in our family through Facebook that I would like to share. The first happen in the closing days of 2009 and into the new year. My wife had long known that she had a sister from her father’s previous marriage. She knew her name and where she lived and where she went to school. What she did not know was how to contact her or how to make that initial contact. If you think about it, that is an incredibly awkward situation. Questions arise inside your mind and you stress on how you will be received. It must be an frightening experience. Well a few days before New Years my wife decided to do a search on FB for her sister and she found her. Through a number of messages they arranged a time to meet and will do that very soon. It is an amazing time for my wife and saying that she is excited is not an adequate expression of her feelings.

The next miracle that FB as but an integral part of is in my family. At the age of thirteen I lost my older brother to an untimely death. He was only 28 years old when he passed and left behind a beautiful family including a 2 year old son. That family lost contact with us over the years and we did not know where they were. For several years now we had searched in vain trying to find them. We found my nephew’s mother’s obituary on the internet a couple of years ago but still could not locate the kids. This week my mother called and asked me to search him on facebook using his whole last name. I did and there was one person on all of facebook with that one name. It was him!!! I add him as a friend worried that I might freak him out. Apparently as I did that my dad messaged him as well. I was worried that he might react negatively to us but he reached back and I got to chat on FB with him for almost two hours Tuesday night.

I have a whole new love for facebook now. Most importantly I have a greater appreciation for God’s grace to think that this was just a coincidence is foolish only God could orchestrate two such encounters in 3 short weeks. I look forward to the coming weeks and months as I get an opportunity to talk and get to know the family that God has given back to us after so long.

00′s In Hindsight

passionburnswithin — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 20:07:19 +0000

It is amazing to me that the decade is coming to a close. I decided to look back at what all has transpired this decade

2000 I met and started dating my wife

2002 I accepted an internship at my home church and I married my wife and left college

2003 I became a father to twins, I accepted my first church as a Part Time minister and was ordained

2006 I left my first church and returned to my home church to take a position, My wife graduated college, I became a father to a beautiful baby girl

2008 I took my first Full Time position and relocated my family to Greenville

2009 went back to school to finish my Religion degree.

By the numbers

10 jobs 7 residences 3 kids 1 graduation…..countless memories

I am very excited about the next decade and all the joys and challenges it will bring.

The Future

passionburnswithin — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:49:29 +0000

What is the one thing essential to the survival of our civilization? What one thing if left uncared for and ignored will result in a complete and utter destruction of everything we have worked to accomplish? The answer is CHILDREN. If a society does not care for and raise up children with values and integrity then the future of the society itself is in danger. So is the case of the church. The church today in most places is exceedingly aging. And while our adults and senior adults are valuable and still have a lot to give we must look toward the future and remember that when we are gone someone has to continue the work. Accept this is no ordinary work this is the honoring of our God and the salvation of souls. If you look around the congregation at Reedy Fork on a Sunday morning you will notice that there is a terrible lack of children and young families in our ranks. And contrary to belief it is not because they are hidden away in children’s church or nursery or somewhere else. It is because they are not here at all. It is an epidemic that is slowly chiseling away at the fabric of our future.

So what is the solution? First, leadership must ask themselves “WHY”. Several weeks ago I sensed that things were declining in youth group on Wednesday nights and I had to take a tough look at what I was doing. I had to be critical of myself and it hurt. I had to make changes to things that I had all planned out and was quite satisfied with but I knew it had to change. We too need to take that same look churchwide whether it be in youth or children’s ministry or in our worship service or any other ministry we must ask the tough questions. Second we need to encourage our families to be here. Note the wording there is encourage and not scold. Fussing and fuming and condemnation will not bring people back into our fold only love, care and concern will. Thirdly if you are a young family reading this YOU need to be here. There is nothing more important than your commitment to God and His church and allowing yourself to drift into the apathy of casual church attendance will do nothing but harm to your relationship with God. I understand that the world is enticing you with all the wonders of what it has to offer but there comes a time when you have to make the decision that God is most important above all and that time is now.

Shape

passionburnswithin — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:58:44 +0000

Ok I may catch some flack for this but I am going to put it out there anyway.

I am a scrawny guy. I am around 6’2″ and weigh around 175. But here over the last year I have started to develop a little protuding belly. I figured it came with getting older and that I would level out after a while. Well the other night my youth group noticed and called me out on it. I will admit it had been eating at me but I thought it was all in my head. But with the affirmation I am taking it seriously.

My goal isn’t to loose weight just to change shape. To see the roundness of my stomach disappear. One thing I am doing is doing away with diet soda. I learned via the Google machine that aspartame is linked to belly fat now. So I ahve abandoned the Diet Mountain Dew for Propel water.

I am currently downing the strawberry-kiwi variety. I also have eliminated snacking on cereal and crackers rather opting for apples and carrots (what we had in the fridge). I just started this a few days ago and we’ll see how well it works. The lack of caffeine is bothersome but if I can get past the headaches I will be in good shape.

Just when you thought it was safe…

passionburnswithin — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:48:11 +0000

I have held a good bit of security in the fact that my wife is a nurse and as such should be fairly secure in her employment status. Afterall we always hear about the healthcare shortage and how nurses are hard to find. I thought she had a secure place working in a trauma recovery unit. A bad economy doesn’t keep people from doing stupid stuff. Well apparently I was a little off. My wife was called in last night to a meeting at work and her unit is merging with another underperforming unit and she is one of the 50% of the work staff to go. What stinks is that if the management had their way she would have been one of the first ones kept but since everything is based off how long you have been there and not how well you have performed she was the first to get cut.

What is wrong in society when the hardest working or the best performing gets the short end. Where is the reward. My wife has been at the hospital 8 months and has already leapfrogged people who have been there for years in the eyes of her management. She has been given more responsibility and been given charge duty over people who have 3x the experience. She has received awards and recognition that previously was unheard of on her floor and yet because she has been there the shortest amount of time she is not valued enough to keep. It is no wonder many nurses are rude and uncooperative and even lazy. In a system where hard work is ignored why try?

Do Not Disregard

passionburnswithin — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:59:56 +0000

Leviticus 10 sets up a sobering scene. Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu were offering incense to God, problem was that they were doing it incorrectly. God was extremely displeased and responded by immediately striking them dead without warning. Furtehrmore he forbid Aaron and his other sons to participate in mourning for their fallen loved ones. They had to show that they were in aggreement with what the Lord had done.

This is an incredible story. How many pastors today are doing things in their church out of selfishness and pride. How many have overlooked what is pleasing to God at the cost of His church. What about plain old Christians. I know so many people who have blamed God for their children’s death when in all actuality if their child had been living a life that was acceptable to God more than likely they would not have been in the situations that led to their death. Could we show total acceptance of God’s will in those situations. It makes me wonder and pause to evaluate where I am at in my walk with our Lord.

I like Moses’ summation of these events. In short Moses reminded Aaron that God had said to never disregard His commands. That was the command and the warning. God had a one and done policy. I am thankful that when I screw up I receive grace. How about you?

27

passionburnswithin — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:44:27 +0000

So today is my B-day. It is always interesting when my B-day falls on a Friday because I am always asked about being named Jason and being born on Friday the 13th. I had a toy chainsaw I would whip out years ago but I wound up losing it in a move.

Anywho… I wound up getting some great swag. Including

A new pair of black Chuck Taylors-which I have been eyeing for awhile

2 AreoPostale Tee’s

A new UNC Tee

And five new books- Cha-ZOWN

Faking Church

Life Beneath the Surface

Not a Safe God

and……I can’t remember right now….

But most importantly was what my wife got me…..

A brand new 50” Plasma TV

Yes I was excited.

Yesterday I got to take a day off and was able to get away by myself and that was cool and then I hung with my bud Colt til late las night which hindered me from getting to work on time. Tonight my wife is taking me on a secret date so I am jazzed about that. It turns out 27 isn’t so bad so far. Alot like being 26 !!

Back Home

passionburnswithin — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:30:00 +0000

I will be heading back home to Rock Hill today to prepare for the family get together we have every year for the twins birthday. While I am there tonight I will get the chance to reunite with some good friends.

Tim Fowler was the pastor at the first pastor I actually worked under as a full fledged staff member. Under him I learned and grew and developed aspects of my ministry that have been extremely helpful. He taught me to never back down, to never take things at face value and to continuously grow myself as a minister and as a leader. Later after I moved from his church he and his wife became great outlets that I could unload on when the ministry was getting hard and burdensome. We have not seen each other since May and I am excited to share with him all the things that have been happening and to hear what God has been doing in his life and ministry as well.

Also if you are cruising blogs check his out on my blogroll…

6 years

passionburnswithin — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:54:32 +0000

Six years ago today my wife gave birth to two beautiful children, one boy one girl. We named them Kelsey and Isaac. For some reason we always call Kelsey’s name first even though Isaac was born a minute sooner. I don’t know why. Over the last 6 years we have had many ups and downs. From financial troubles to working two jobs with a wife in school to Kelsey’s terrible threes when she would through huge screaming fits in the car when she didn’t get her way, to being out of work and looking for a new place to call home for my ministry to big moves and new experiences. The last six years have been a series of major changes, changes I would not trade for the world.

It is bittersweet to arrive at this point my firstborn are no longer babies or tots they are children , growing smarter and more adventurous every day. I miss them being little I do not miss them having temper tantrums. I love them with all my heart and pray for them every day. I wonder what they will become I hope that they will make great choices. I wan to hold them here in this moment for forever….but alas I cannot.

Kelsey and Isaac I love you and Happy Birthday!!