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Update from Nepal

Well, we made it to Nepal!!  It is definitely a different world here.  As I type this, I am worried that the power will go out (it has been doing blackouts all morning) 🙂  We had a good time in Hong Kong on our 2 day layover.  We had a city tour and then went to Hong Kong Disney for a day.  It rained all day, but it was so much fun.  We got into Kathmandu last night around 11:30p.  It was very interesting driving through the streets with no lines and everyone everywhere.  There has been a lot of unstable activity in the past few days but we believe that God is in control and ordering our steps.  We are going to meet with the kids from the orphanage in a few hours and I am excited.  I cannot explain yet what I am feeling while staying here.  I know Yolanda and I are here to encourage and to pray over the country while we are here and to be Jesus’ hands a feet.

More fun news to come!!

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Nothing like being Thank-FULL


I want my life to be “full” of “thanks.”  Thankfulness is a key factor in moving out of difficult situations in life.  Thankfulness says something about your life especially when you are a follower of Christ.  The most important thing thankfulness does is admit that God is in control and you are not.  You are not saying you enjoy pain, but that you trust God enough to say thanks for the opportunity to learn something about yourself that has the potential to make you a better person.  Pain, sickness and generally things that feel harmful in life can be seen as one of two things; OPPOSITION you can fight or OPPORTUNITY you can embrace. Thankfulness focuses your thoughts and attitude on being grateful and is a key ingredient in God seeing that you are ready for a change in life.  True thankfulness is not being thankful to try and manipulate the situation to get what you want, it’s taking an inventory and appreciating the things in life that help make you the person you need to be.  I want to be a thankful person in all situations so people will want to be around me, listen to me and be changed by how I feel about a relationship with Christ.  People who complain and are not thankful in life repel others and make a reputation for themselves that is generally negative and not good.  When I was really sick with my eye I didn’t know how to be truly thankful for possibly going blind, losing my job and becoming a huge burden on my wife.  I really believe this was because I didn’t know the difference between being thankful FOR pain and being thankful IN pain.  Thankful FOR pain is not what God asks from us but he does want us to learn to be thankful IN pain.  Keeping our eyes on Jesus and not worried about the circumstances that cause us discomfort.  On this thanksgiving day don’t just say you are thankful, but really take an inventory of your life, thank the people who have helped you in life and thank God for the oppositions you have in life that can become your greatest opportunities to become stronger in every way.

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I am not a Christian anymore…

jesus_blog

I am not a Christian anymore.  Maybe that sounds odd for a pastor to say something like this, but I had a type of epiphany this morning in my prayer time.  I was reviewing and thinking about the meaning of the word “Christian” to people who dont know Christ as their best friend and savior.  I am tired of R&B artists dropping F bombs and talking about inappropriate things in their music and then thanking God when they accept some award for a song or video they did.  I am tired of celebrities saying they are Christians on national television or wearing Christian t shirts and cursing and not living a witnessing life around others.  I am not saying that being a follower of Christ is being perfect, but it is following ONLY Christ and recognizing the sacrifices Jesus has made for my sins.  I really dont want people around me who are not Christians to look at me and see perfection because that is not what Christianity is about.  It is about loving all people with the love of Christ, constantly becoming more patient when I drive, or talking to God so much that I dont react to a situation but I step back, think about what I am doing and make sure it lines up with the Word of God and considering what Jesus would do in that situation.  I want to be known as a follower of Christ.  Not a man of perfection, but a human who follows a God that I know has my best interests in mind no matter what I go through.  That he is ordering my steps even though, at times, it feels like I am not able to take those steps.  I dont want people around me who are pre-believers to think that I take into account confucious’ positive sayings, or motivational speakers/life coaches helpful words for living a more successful life.  Being a follower of Christ is treating my wife with respect and love, being patient/loving with people around me and honoring those in authority over me as much as it is praying nice prayers and reading the Word of God on a daily basis.  God make me a complete person in the Fruits of the Spirit as much as the Gifts of the Spirit that I have in my life.

7holycrap Life Lessons

Techno fasting

I am typing this blog post from my new iPhone I just got about a week ago. I am tell you this, not just for you to think I’m cool, but to illustrate a point. At this point in my life, I don’t even have to go get my computer to type my thoughts to the world. Now for me, a lover of technology, this can be a great thing and it can be a terrible thing as well. Great because it is fun and something new to play with and learn. Terrible because it can cause me to spend more time being technological and less time being a Christian. I am not saying that I feel we need to do away with technology, but that it can be an amazing tool used in moderation. I can tell you that I spend more time playing with techno things than I do with praying and spending time in the bible. I think this is where I am feeling so strong about a techno fast each week to keep the tools I use to connect and communicate in perspective. I am not sure what day I want to do this fast, but it will start this week. I never want my hunger and thirst for technology to become stronger than my hunger and thirst for God and his presence in my life.

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An Encouraging thing just happened

Tonight, I had a visit from my neighbor.  This may not seem like a big deal, but there are circumstances around this situation that are really encouraging to me and I thought I would share with you all.  When I was REALLY sick with my eye situation, God had convicted me of not sharing my faith enough with the people that live in our townhome complex.  One guy in particular, was a person who had always been on my heart since we had moved to this area of town  about six years ago but for one reason or another I had always found excuses not to talk to him about Jesus.  Being a pastor, I always said I was too busy putting together services for other people so THEY could go out and share their faith with the world.  Then my world was turned upside down by having Scleritis and almost losing my eye in the process.  If you have never been really sick to the point of a changed lifestyle, one thing to know is that your priorities in life change.  I went from “looking good” as a pastor to actually doing my job on this earth which is sharing my faith with others.  I can remember the night about five years ago when I decided that I was not going to go blind or die and not have shared my faith with this neighbor who had been on my heart for so many years.   I walked over and knocked on the door and he let me into the doorway of his house.  I told him, “I have lived here for two years and have never told you about the most important thing in my life which is my relationship with Jesus.”  I was then waiting for him to break down and start crying and give his life over to God right then and there.  Needless to say, that didn’t happen.  He went on to tell me how he had been involved with a denomination growing up and had been abused by the church staff when he was a kid and still had some pretty hard feelings for church in general.  I told him, “well, you know I am pretty sick right now and I dont know what is going to happen to me, but I knew that I needed to tell him about my feelings for Jesus and that I knew I was supposed to talk to him that night.  I walked back to my house and went on with my life and living out the next four most painful years of my life emotionally, physically, spiritually and financially.  Whenever I had seen this neighbor around it was good because I knew I had done my part to tell him about God and the rest was up to him.
So fast forward to tonight and my visit from this neighbor.  He proceeded to tell me that he was fully involved in a church now singing in the choir and that he had dealt with the issues that had hurt him so many years ago.  He told me that he had made it right with God and was not mad at the church anymore.  I really feel like my conversation with him about four years ago started something in him that progressed to the point of him coming to grips with the pain that he went through as a child and knowing that being mad at God was not the answer to the peace he was looking for in life.  The other amazing thing was that his intention tonight was only to walk over and tell me this information about him going to church and that he had made it right with God.  This was encouraging to me in that my eye situation was used to get me off my fat butt and go tell someone about my relationship with Jesus and for it to start something good in his life and change his eternal destination forever.  I know that it was not just about me talking to my neighbor that changed him, but it was about God using me in the middle of my crap to change a guy who I will now see in heaven and who has made peace with a painful past.  What are you doing today to change the world around you?  Please don’t do what I did and wait for a rotten eyeball to do the things that God is asking you to do. If you dont have a relationship with him then please send me an email and we can talk.  pbrian7@yahoo.com
I can now say that this is the most fun I have had in my walk with God and helping to change people’s lives for the better.  It really isn’t me sharing with people about what I think is wrong with their lives or what they believe, it is talking about the peace I have found in Christ and the purpose beyond my life that is changing the world I live in forever for the glory of God.

7holycrap Life Lessons

Sample from my book “Holy Crap…finding God’s presence in your pain”

Here is a small sample of a chapter I worked on today about people watching you when you are going through pain.  Remember, this is a “thoughts to paper” draft of this chapter and very rough, but gives a good idea where I am going with the chapter.  Thanks and enjoy!

Holy Crap…finding God’s presence in your pain – Chapter 9

People will watch your Pain

What is it with a traffic accident?  In Colorado there is an epidemic of “gawker traffic” that occurs whenever there is any kind of flashing lights on the side of the road.  I am a true believer that people (although they wont say it) are looking for as much blood and guts as possible when seeing the red and blue lights of any kind of emergency vehicle.  It really is interesting to think about what people would do if they actually did see something gruesome on the side of the road and have to mentally process it.  I think when people see an accident they are thinking a few things; they may want to see if they know anyone involved in the incident, maybe they are thanking God that it wasn’t them in the accident or they want to see the level of destruction involved so they have a juicy story when they get to the office.  I say all these things because I believe that pain and opposition in a persons life can evoke some of those same emotions to the world around them.  Maybe people around them react based on the level that they know the person affected by pain.  I know for my parents, sister and wife that my sickness has really challenged them in their faith and believe in God’s grace and power.  People may also ask how a person is doing just so they can have the “inside scoop” when other people ask how that person is doing.  When they are talking to the person in pain they are thinking in the back of their mind, “I am sure glad I am not going through what that person is dealing with.”  I feel like for the years I was sick I encountered every one of those types of people in conversations or just in knowing that people were watching Yolanda and I from the thirty five different doctors reviewing my case and looking in my eye, to people in our neighborhood to friends and family in the church.  I am not looking down or talking bad about those people looking at me in any of the ways I identified, I am just saying that its a fact that people will look at you and your life when you go through pain.  I really want this book to be able to help people on all levels of pain and crap they go through in life.  I firmly believe that crap happens in life and we have all kinds of opportunities to help others, help ourselves and let Jesus do something more amazing in the bad times than in the good.  When people are looking at you and the life you are living in pain, God has just allowed you to influence and affect the path of their life in a greater way than you could ever imagine.
Before I go into some of these elements, always remember that it is your decision if you want to matter to other people or if you just want to “turtle up” and go into survival mode with your pain.  Survival mode is the automatic reaction to a painful situation, but remember that the first, initial, gut reaction to anything usually not the right thing to do, think or say.  I cannot remember one time in my life when I reacted to something and it turned out well, helped anyone or made me not look stupid and reactionary to a situation.  When I stepped back, evaluated my situation and then ACTED on whatever was happening I always did my best to make the most out of the situation for myself and for others around me.  This is not just you programming yourself to do the right thing when people around you are looking at your life.  It takes effort on your part but it also takes the power of the Holy Spirit in your life to do this.  In the Bible, Phillipians 4:13 says “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  It still says that its “me” doing the things, but it is the power of Christ in my life that gives me the ability to live a life that is not only pleasing to him, but encouraging to the people around me.
There is one key thing to remember here; I am not saying I have done everything right with my attitude and actions when I came home from the eye doctors office with reports of moving closer to removing my eye, possibly going completely blind and probably dealing with medication for the rest of my life because of an overactive immune system.  This book, prayerfully, is for you to read and learn from my mistakes and also to learn something from the principles of going through crap and not just getting through it but, in some way, looking forward to them as growing experiences.

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Swine Flu and you…what we are really seeing in America

pigartWell I don’t know about you, but I think I am fed up with hearing about swine flu (typed in all lower case letters for a reason).  I look on my twitter account and see that one of the most searched terms for the past couple of weeks has been swine flu.  This has really turned out to be more of a flop (in a good way) as far as the severity of the flu strain than it was first supposed to be.  People are contracting it and getting better with treatment and some news articles I have read said that it is just a different strain of the common flu.  One thing I find amazing is the way that the world has reacted to this epidemic of words and information about the flu.  The news has reported on it, people have blogged about it, facebook and myspace updates about everyday on it and just a “water cooler” type of buzz that has been infectious not in the disease but in the misinformation about it.  This swine flu has shown me one thing that is unequivocally true about this world and most of its inhabitants…they listen to anything the media and others say and then react to it.  I know that as a Christian, God has not called me to be reactionary in the way I live my life.  Not even on a Spiritual level, but when I react to situations in my life I let circumstances dictate to me how happy I am, how happy I make others around me and am just generally controlled by things other than Jesus.  We need to be the light of the world and this is not just wearing a sandwich board in the downtown area of town and screaming “turn or burn” to people passing by.  It is to have such a relationship with Jesus that we don’t react to situations as far reaching as swine flu or maybe with a coworker that just likes to push our buttons or when something traumatic happens to us in life.  The reason why I know this type of “light shining” will work is the proof of the reactionary nature of the world we live in.  Most people are just reacting to the things that happen in life instead of acting on them.  I am thankful that this flu has not been the pandemic it was first thought it could be, but look at the reaction to people because I really believe it can be an open door for seeing people move from reactionary in life to living a life with Jesus that is “actionary” (if that is even a word) 🙂