Welcome to my blog:
Friday, October 12, 2012
Washing Feet
Thursday, October 4, 2012
To all the new or soon to be parents out there
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Who's story is it?
I’ve been working in ministry for 7 years now in the local church and one resounding theme keeps coming up. What is the right decision, or what should I do? To be honest I rarely answer this question unless they are about to do something completely stupid then I may give my humble opinion, usually in the nicest way possible. (Ok maybe not so nice.) But for the majority of people I just start walking with them through their decision making process. What has brought you to this point? Why do you have to make this decision? What are the underlying questions? What are your fears? Give me the pros and cons. Etc... Then we eventually get to this question; note they are usually the ones to bring it up. What do you think God would want me to do? Wow that’s a heavy one. Does God want to be involved in every decision we make, is there always a God vs. World answer to every question. If I chose wrong am I out of step with God’s plan for my life? Here is my answer to those questions. God absolutely cares about you and the decisions you make, He will utilize you no matter what decisions you make to bring him glory, you just have to be ok with the fact that you’re greatest failing is most likely his biggest use for you in ministry.
I think all too often we get so focused on our lives that we tend to forget whose story is the focus. This includes me. I am convinced that the biggest idol in my life is myself. Pride is such a nasty thing. We get so focused on our own lives and rights and feelings that we are often blinded to the world around us. This is reinforced over and over by a world that calls us to focus on self and on our own identity, often our faith and beliefs become just another item in the about section of our FB page. But God has called us to be so much more. He wants to be the star in the movie of our life, but are we ok with just being a sub character or even Cop in donut shop #3 in the credits of his story. As we are making decisions in life what would happen if we took a minute to just go and see what God has for us. For me it boils down to one passage for my life taken from the book of Matthew 28:18-20; “18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
To be honest this is not always a popular life choice. I try and follow this and really never know if I’ve got it all right. It’s kind of like if I were an actor and was given one scene to play but had to wait 60 years to see what the final outcome was. I’ve been promised a glorious ending and that it’ll be beyond my wildest dreams. I’ve even been told who the main character is but the rest the rest is not for me to know. At least not right now.
So what do we do with this how can we stop focusing on what God will do in our story and start focusing on His story. Well the concept is actually pretty simple. We follow him, we take the things that get in between us and him and we cast them aside. Most importantly we don’t do this alone. God has given us people in our lives that we can trust and be open with that we can lay these idols before them and they will help us with the backing of God to stomp those idols out and to regain focus on what’s truly important. As the verse says we are to make disciples not converts. Each one of us needs to let go of the secrets that control us and to start walking a path towards God that not only is free from the guilt and shame that blinds us but open to seeing the beauty and wonders that surround us. To stop focusing on the sin itself and start focusing on the person behind the sin. To be able to trust and open up and to be held in accountability with other believers. This doesn’t mean sharing your junk with everyone but rather the select few. Those who will approach you with God’s grace as well as challenge you for the future. That we may start putting God first in our lives fully understanding the sacrifice that comes with that. When we can start doing this I believe we will find that our decision making process may not change but that our list of priorities and the focus of those decisions will. I for one am going to give it a try. It’s difficult but I guess we’ll find out how it went at the end of the movie.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Thank you letter to Mom, from us.
Friday, February 17, 2012
It’s My Story!
Currently my wife and I are in the middle of Adopting another child and have been faced with the challenge of keeping his story his. You see he is an infant obviously can’t talk and is honestly one of the most beautiful people I have ever seen. But because he is up for adoption and I am kind of an open guy people keep asking me about his background, his medical stuff and various other things that nobody would dare ask an adult unless we had a deep and close relationship with them. The truth is it’s his story and it’s not mine to tell.
What I can tell you about is parts of my adoption story. You see I was adopted when I was three days old to an awesome family in Kirkland Washington. My Birthmother (whom I now consider one of my best friends) was a young girl who just wasn’t ready for what I had in store and so she put me up for adoption, but anything surrounding that is her story. My parents were open about the fact that I was adopted and we constantly talked about what that meant and how much they loved me and that in their eyes my brother, their biological son and I were the same in their eyes. I know this to be true to this day and feel closer to my parents now than I ever have (they are some of my other best friends.) Now here comes the hard part. When you are adopted, no matter how good or bad the system is you tend to feel a disconnect from your own story. Many of us as children imagine our futures and whether will be an astronaut or a police man or in my daughters case a fairy princess with a light sabre. But those of us who are adopted also imagine our past. For me I imagined the worst possible scenario in my head. That my birthparents had turned to drugs and alcohol and were in prison and had made all the wrong choices in life and therefore no matter what I found if I ever met them, I would not be disappointed. I struggled through elementary school and even in to high school trying to figure out who I was. You see the other part of my mind would struggle with the fact that though my parents loved me they didn’t look like me. All my friends looked like their brothers and sisters or their Moms and Dads. Little similarities that many of them never noticed but I sure did. I would sit at their dinner tables looking around and noticing the hand gestures and facial expressions that had been handed down from generation to generation not just through environment but through those shared genes. This was hard for me. I started to try and mimic my parent’s actions and then started copying others making up in my head again what I thought to be mine. Then as I entered in to adulthood and married the most amazing woman this world has ever seen God gave me a gift. His name is Nathaniel. For the first time someone looked like me. He moved his hands like me and to this day I can see bits and pieces of myself in him. And then came Manny and then Charlie, and then Alex. If you ever ask me who they look like I’ll say me. Truth is most of them take after their mom, those Mennonite genes are strong suckers. And then came my buddy Hayden. We adopted Hayden and he came into our home 3 and a half years ago and changed our lives forever. The funniest part is that everyone says he looks the most like me. Hayden for me is a constant reminder of all the amazing kids out there who have their own story and are just looking for a family to share it with. You see I was not an easy kid to raise. I took out my emotions and my struggles on many people especially my parents. But they were there to love and support me no matter what. I hope that I can be as good a parent to all my kids. You see whether they are adopted or not my job as a parent is to help my kids to be able to find, live, and articulate their story. Not to the whole world but to those they will love and those they will parent in the future. We all have a story uniquely given to us by God and in my experience he takes those stories and puts people in our lives who have similar stories. They may be older or younger but they are either experiencing what we will experience or what we already have and the blessing is that we can walk through life together as our stories intertwine with one another ultimately creating HIS story. So if you ask me about my kids and their lives and struggles and triumphs and I reply that’s their story, don’t take it as an insult just know that I’m a proud Dad that loves his family and will protect them with every ounce of my being till the day God decides to take me home.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
The MAN card?
We all have different ideas of what qualities it takes to earn your MAN card. Yeah I went there. The infamous MAN card. I have had this card taken away from me so many times that I’m starting to wonder when things are going to fall off and other stuff grow in their place. Here are a 10 of the latest reasons why someone has taken my MAN card away.
1. I cannot help but cry whenever I watch Extreme Makeover Home edition.
2. I confess I’d rather go to the Opera than my wife.
3. I work out to Aerobics videos with my wife.
4. When my daughter got a Barbie playhouse for Christmas I played Barbie’s with her for over an hour.
5. I like many a chick flick; Romantic comedies are actually pretty good.
6. I actually like clothes and fashion. (They just don’t make most of the good stuff in XXL, US XXL)
7. I occasionally read People.
8. I sing higher than most girls
9. When my daughter asked me too I watched the Justin Bieber Documentary and actually liked it.
10. I will choose my wife over my bros any day of the week.
First off let me apologize to any guy whose MAN card privileges I have revoked in the past. The MAN card is by all accounts stupid. What makes a man a man is not the sports that he plays, or most likely used to play back in the day when he was the next__________ ! It’s not how hot his girlfriend/wife/conquests are; besides my wife is hotter than all of those anyways. It’s not even how much money he makes, thank goodness for this one or I’d be hosed. A man is defined by how he serves others. First his God, second his spouse (whether or not he’s found her yet) then his kids and finally those that God puts in his way. Now get this straight I fail constantly at all of these. You see being a Man is stinking hard. I want to serve me first. I would love it if everyone just did what I wanted and I had complete control over every situation. But sorry Cory that’s not how it works. Back in my first year of college I had to take a freshman lit class. We all had to take them and by the time I actually got around to signing up (yeah some things never change) there was only one class left. Feminism in Literature. I showed up to the first class and needless to say I was the only guy there and realized quite rapidly that I probably wasn’t going to be meeting any love interests in this class. For six months I benefited from every negative experience, feeling, and hatred that each of the girls in the class along with the Professor felt or had felt due to the male half of our species. Then came time for the final paper. After pulling my thumb from my mouth and escaping the fetal position I decided I would write a paper on what it is to be a man. Brilliant, I know, but as I researched and read all these books by many an expert I finally was hit by a few passages in the Bible that have stuck with me to this day. So here in summary are 5 points that I learned.
1. Love God and submit to his authority on your life.
Matthew 22:36-38 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
2. Love your wife holding her in esteem and supporting her and presenting her as beautiful inside and out.
Eph 5:25-3325 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[a] her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[b] 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
3. Serve others
Matthew 22:39-40 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
4. I cannot do it on my own.
Philippians 4:13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
5. I will fail and when I do I need to own it and seek forgiveness for it.
John 21:15-19 15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”
This is by no means and I’m not even implying that I have it all together but as I sit here today writing this I realize that though I have a long way to go to. I cannot say that I am alone. I have an amazing God who has blessed me with an awesome wife and wonderful kids who all through my many failings have extended grace love and forgiveness to me and so I will stick my MAN card back in my Wallet puff out my chest and proudly profess that I am a MAN.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Living
I've been spending some time working through first Peter over the past few months and am finding myself constantly challenged by this whole concept of living the holy life in a broken world. This idea that we have the hope of heaven, and know by faith and through God's grace that we will experience yet we still have to experience life here in this crazy world As Peter puts it, " What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, 4 including a future in heaven - and the future starts now! 5 God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you'll have it all - life healed and whole. 6 I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime." 1Peter 1:3-6 (The Message) For me this is so real yet sometimes so hard to grasp on to. I fully accept it as true and as Peter writes to the church of his day I think we too need to listen to what he is trying to say. What I hear in these and the following verses is the fact that God knows the struggles that we face every day and he realizes the temptations and pressures that the world puts on us are hard to resist and that it would be so easy for us just to give in and deal with the now and not worrying about what is to come. I get so wrapped up in what I am facing today that I forget what is ahead of me tomorrow. Not what my five or ten year plan is but rather what God's eternal plan is for me. What would happen if I started living my life as an eternal life rather than one that has an expiration date on it. The reality is that my Bucket List has an eternity for me to check items off. The time tables that I am continually setting for myself are my time tables not necessarily Gods. As I look back on my life thus far I see how God has moved me through the love of others and through loving others. My best laid plans and programming usually were used by God to show me dependence on him not his dependence on me. I took the time today to look back and really see where God has used me and where I felt his presence and could see him doing his work. The reality struck me like a 2X4 in the grill. My most powerful God moments have come when I wasn't "on the job" but rather was just being who God designed me to be. It was when I was so tired of trying to do life myself that I actually surrendered and let him take the lead. The times where I put Cory aside and just basked in the presence of God. Many would say No duh! And to tell you the truth I've preached and taught on this many times but just take a second sit down and ask yourself who are you relying on you right now? On yourself, or are you relying on God. Are you in a hurry, do you feel like you're going to run out of time, if it doesn't get done right now will it never get done. What is number one on your priority list right now , number 2, number 3? Where is God in your life. Sitting on the shelf or holding you in his arms. If your answer is that he is on the shelf my word of encouragement is that in reality he is holding you in his arms, all you have to do is open up your mind and heart enough to realize it and to lean back nuzzle up and let him lead the way. You'll still have to work and still be challenged you might have to give up some things and may have to throw some idols away. your family and friends may think your nuts and you might even question it yourself but in the eternal picture does it really matter what they think right now. As I read through scripture I am more and more convinced that God has a special place for those who are willing to look a little crazy by following his will. Those who went against their culture because their culture went against their God. Hate to point out the obvious but today's popular culture and priorities don't line up with those of my God and I think its time,for me at least, to start living the eternal life now while I'm here instead of waiting for the afterlife to get started.