A Fragile Hope

My pastor just sat down and showed me this video...this is by some of the kids in his fellowship.



Awesome...

Devotions

• David glories in the grace & forgiveness of the Lord - his iniquities were covered
  
  
  
  • His iniquities weren't accounted to his account
  
  
  • How much more am I blessed?
    
    
    
    • Not only are my iniquities not accounted - Jesus' righteousness is...!
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• If David, the man after God's own heart, could live a lie...how mucu more me?
  
  
  
  • I am capable of living a lie
  
  
  • I don't want to live a lie!!!
  
  
  
  


• God dealt with Dave - hand of correction - dryness
  
  
  
  • Don't despise the chastening of the Lord
  
  
  
  


• Sin translates to spiritual drought


• David confessed - he didn't make excuses
  
  
  
  • That's what opened the door for experiencing true renewal & refreshing
  
  
  
  


• I need to stop making excuses.


• "You are my hiding place...You always fill my heart with songs of deliverance..."


• As David is worshipping & expressing himself to God, God speaks to him (vv.8-9)
  
  
  
  • I'm not here to hear more Bible studies...God desires to speak to me
  
  
  • I need to be looking & listening
  
  
  
  


• I don't want to be vomitted to get where God wants me to be (Jonah)


• The small things are important to God
  
  
  
  • I want to be led by God's eye - I don't want to wait for the bit & bridle
  
  
  • What affects the "small" areas of my life will affect the "large" areas
  
  
  • "I don't want you to be wild & unbroken."
  
  
  
  


• Abraham got tired of waiting...and then Ishmael came

After the session

My lovely and gracious wife was text-messaging me an ongoing play-by-play of the game - I absolutely adore that woman.

Anyway, the Wings just went up 3-2 with 10 minutes left in regulation when I shut off the phone for Bob Caldwell's session. So you can imagine the cry of anguished fury when the session was over, I turned the phone back on and - the Pens tied it up with 34 seconds left in regulation.

D'oh.

But while I was in the Overflowing Cup, with NHL.COM loaded up and listening to the game online while on the phone with my wife during the last bit of the second and all of the third overtime periods, I did get to hang with Chad Myhre and Centorian, from The Blog Of Which We Do Not Speak.

However, I had to run the gauntlet all the way back to Lakeside Lodge, with loving and gracious pastors (especially the dudes from Colorado - you know who you are...) heckling my every, stunned step.

I did get to chat with Bill Walden on my way back to the lodge, who was marinating in the Roman Spa. He's a good brother.

It's all good, though. I really think my wife was more disappointed in the outcome of the game than I was.

Did I mention how much I adore that woman...?

Right now, two of my roomates are synchronized-snoring. I'm fighting the powerful temptation to walk over to one/both of them and put their hands in warm water or dab some shaving cream on their hands or something equally mature and pastorial.

...must...fight urge to...be a...punk...

Lurking on The Blog Of Which We Do Not Speak, and heading to sleep myself.

I miss my wife and son.

Did I mention how much I adore her...?

Session 2 - Bob Caldwell

• It's amazing what an environment of faith,
  love, and truth can do.


• We limit ourselves to ourselves too much.


• Paul had a heart of great boldness in God,
  but with great conflict.




• The people who had wanted his help style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>initially, turned on him & lit
  into him


• "The last time I was sent somewhere
  by God, I got my head kicked in!"


• ...but is it worth it?


• ...it is if you're called.




• Can't look back - keep fighting through style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>for the sake of the people God called
  you to.


• Conflicts are part of the ball game - they
  don't go away.


• "If you think about it, most of us
  (pastors) just aren't all that sane."


• The devil would love you to
  "play church."


• Satan hates your guts.


• Conflict is a gift - it's a great purifier
  - it will either crush us, or draw us to the Lord.


• This isn't heaven - so get up & fight


• "We have been approved by God to be
  entrusted with the Gospel" - & that's wat drove Paul on.


• Am I seeking to please God...?


• If I'm seeking to be approved, I style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>will
  be tested.




• Everything I want to trust in I want to be
  tested


• What's more powerful, more important than
  the Gospel?




• Does the Gospel own my heart...?


• My relationship with this Book (the Bible)
  is a heart thing.


• I would rather teach a small little sermon
  that had real faith than a fancy one with sophistication that draws men to
  my
  imagined greatness.


• Don't despise the day of small beginnings.




• That Bible study for 5 people is just as
  important to God as one for 5000




• What is it that's holding me back?




• Does the Lord have my heart, or have I
  let it grow cold...?




• A local church, to not labor in vain, I
  must have a mother's affection for the people.




• Does my son ever thank me for changing
  his diapers?


• ...see how this applies to the ministry?


• It's not about being appreciated - and I
  probably won't be




• Pastors have to be "non-quitters"
  - but also gentle.


• God would fan the flame of someone who was
  about to go out.


• There are many bruised people - treat them
  with gentleness, not brutality.




• We can't be too busy not to cherish the
  people & be gentle.


• Chuck seems to love everybody - style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>even
  the bruised.




• Give not just the Gospel, but my style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>life,
  too




• When you give your heart to people, yoire
  going to get hurt.


• Paul wasn't a disconnected professional.
  Many of the people you give your life for won't like you.




• style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Do it anyway style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;mso-fareast-font-family:Tahoma'>.
  






• Fathers invest in their kids and don't
  expect anything in return.


• The Gospel is what it's about - not me.

Dinner is (more or less) served

So, the Michigan pastors have a tradition. When we're at the Murrieta conference, we leave the conference grounds at least once and gluttonize eat at the Brazilian Steakhouse.

We get there, at the mall a bit down the road outside the conference grounds and...it's gone.

Not the conference grounds. That would be odd.

But the Brazilian Steakhouse - apparently, the Partial Rapture Theory is at least partially true.

After much weeping and gnashing of teeth, we wound up settling for El Torrito's.

Sigh.


So then I come back and hit The Overflowing Cup to check e-mail, upload some pics, and who do I see trying rather vainly to hide over in yonder corner?

Corby of Stephens.

Very cool; got to catch up with another brother I don't get to see but once per year, at this conference.


So, now I'm going to go get some "Vitamin C" to help me stay awake during the next session - which really shouldn't be all that difficult - Bob Caldwell rocks the proverbial Casba.

Session 1 - Mike MacIntosh

I Thes. 1

• The return of Jesus is mentioned in each of the chapters


• The Church is in the Lord - not a man, or a denomination.


• It's so important for us to be praying for each other.


• We have a lot of power in our prayers


• George Mueller & his 5 college friends


• 65 years of praying for his friend


• Paul's fruit among the Thessalonians came through the teaching of the Word.


• Acts 17:11


• Chuck Smith was always ministering - so much for the "you gotta take a break!" guys...d'oh...


• Whatever we're doing today for the Lord should be a work of faith.


• Pastoring the church takes faith


• The day you stop loving the people is the day you walk out.


• Labor of love - I.e., no strings attached.


• No fingerprints.


• We get "it" (it being a labor of love) when the devil knocks you down, & the Lord holds you & picks you back up.


• Patience of hope - trust Him to work & deliver you.


• Hope comes through affliction


• If any man boast, let him boast that he knows & understands Me...


• God will shake us, test us - do I really love Him, really love the people?


• I should always give thanks to God for/in the ministry - not complain, not become embittered, not backtalk


• "Mike, it's just a bump in the road."


• Do I want to go on with the Lord? Then the afflictions will come.


• These three things:
  
  • The Word
  
  
  • The Holy Spirit
  
  
  • Much assurance
    
    The last comes only with the first two.


• I need to be an example even in how I suffer, forgive, & live in & give out grace.

Heading to CA

Tomorrow morning, I have the inexpressibly wonderful privilege to fellowship with the saints here on the Lakeshore and work through the rest of Luke 6 with them.

Tomorrow evening, I get on a plane to head to the Left Coast for the annual Pastors' Conference.

I simultaneously love and hate this time of year.

I love, I look forward to this time of year - I get to fellowship with brothers-in-arms from all over the planet whom I haven't seen in a year, get to soak in some of the best Biblical teaching around, get "trimmed" (as my brothers Ed Yearack and Roger Ulman like to call it), and partake of the Third Ordinance the Lord left for His church.

Good times.

I hate and dread this time of year, because I'll be apart from my lovely and gracious wife - and now I'll also be apart from my son. Since my lovely and gracious wife has been invited pretty much every year since we've been here planting CC Lakeshore to speak at our pastor's church's Ladies' Retreat, which is held on the weekend before the Murietta Conference, she leaves the Wednesday before I do - so I wind up not seeing her for a week-and-a-half.

Now, this year, I'll be missing my wife and son.

Yeesh.

My plan for this week: some "live blogging" RE: the conference, much like last year, plus "live-Twittering."

Gotta love microblogging.

Now I need to get to sleep - if I can - so that I can be as fresh as possible when 4am rolls around, to head to the church building and finish preps for Sunday morning.

Rock on...

Wings take Game 4

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