This has been written in my head for awhile!

So this post has been written in my head for awhile now!  Floating around in the mush that I call my brain.  It might not sit well with others but I have to get it out before it makes me crazier than I already am!  So here goes.

This year I have noticed how easy it seems to get a group of Christians to come behind something that seems to be an unjust situation.  Don't get me wrong I'm all for helping people and doing what is right as long as I have enough information to make a clear evaluation of the situation.  As that goes, the most resent issue that has attracted a lot of attention has been Chick-fil-A and all that has surrounded it.  Let me explain myself before you jump to conclusions on where you think I stand.

First and foremost I'm a follower of Jesus Christ who is my Lord and Savior.  I try to live each day to the best of my ability as a follower of Jesus.  As most of us know the whole Chick-fil-A issue stems from Mr. Cathy sharing his belief about same sex marriages.  As a Christian I believe that the gay life style is a sin, as is stealing, adultery, murder and a whole list of other things.  My issue is that the whole appreciation day in my opinion showed more hate than love if you attended it because "we have to stand up for God".  If you went to Chick-fil-A on August 1st to show support for First Amendment rights then I believe you where there for the right reasons.  That being said I also don't believe that any official that can legally marry someone should be forced to marry a gay couple if it goes against their religious belief.   As for my family and I we will continue to eat there as we love chicken and also their waffle fries.

I see so many more issues within the church than gay marriage but right now this seems to be where so many people are putting their stake in the ground.  It seems easier to look and say what is wrong with the world than to maybe look at the "church" (as the body of Christ, not a specific building) and see the issues that are going on within it.  I'm not, by any means, saying I'm with out sin.  Let's be real none of us are.  When speaking with a friend lately he talked about how 50% of high school guys that he had in a group admitted having an addiction to pornography.  How often is this brought up in discussions within the church?  What about spending money on the church to make us feel better rather than sharing that money or putting the money to feed the homeless?  An example that almost made me throw up was when I seen an episode of TANKED on Animal Plant. A church had built an aquarium that cost over $250,000 and it required having a full-time biologist on staff to take care of it.  That seems a little over the top to me.  This passage comes to mind when I think through all this.

Matthew 7:3-5

New International Version (NIV)

³ “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

As Christians we are called to show the love of Jesus.  I believe there is so much more that the body of Christ could do to show this love.  Will you join me in trying to live it out and being the light for others?  If so here is a daily check list that I came up with for myself. I'm not going to lie it not always easy to follow this list but it is how I need to define each day!

My new checklist:
1.  What have I done to glorify God today?
2.  What have I done to advance the Kingdom of God? 
3.  How have I shown the love of Jesus?

Big News!

(Quick disclaimer, I tried to put links to things and couldn't figure it out)

   So, we have some BIG NEWS that has come about over the last week or so!  Some of you may have been wondering what has been going on with us as some of our tweets or facebook statuses have been vague or not completely coherent at times.  Well as of now we are set to close on a house in Keller Park next Friday.  We are taking a leap of faith and doing what we believe God is asking us to do.  We plan to be living there by around the first of August.  Some will question why we would do this and some will call us stupid and irrational.  We appreciate every-ones honesty and we do listen to what you have to say.  I will try to explain some of how we got to this point.

   For me this started in November of 2009 with a small group outing and a series that was happening in Senior High at that time.  You can read more about that by going to my first blog post.  It has been a crazy journey since then.  In the spring of 2010 my friend Pastor Derry Prenkert re-posted a blog from Kory and Ali Lantz (Transformation Ministries) about needs in their ministry.  You can check their blog out here www.kptransformation.com.    We were in a position to be able to help them with some of those needs at that time.  When our family took the supplies and food to Kory and Ali we sat down and talk to them sharing my story and ours as a family.  A connection was made and we continued to pray and also give money to Kory and Ali and the Transformation through our weekly giving at Nappanee Missionary Church.  We would continue to stay updated with what was going on in their ministry through blog post and talking with Kory's mom Cindi (a great women of God by the way).  Chris continued to say no to ministry full time (with valid reasons) but allowed me to help serve at NMC however I could.

   Fast forward to the beginning of October 2011.  After me praying for almost two years that Chris' heart would open up to us living differently God answered my prayer.  Out of nowhere Chris mentioned about 5 different mission fields that we might look at.  Some excited me and some scared me but one in particular made me smile.  She asked what if we moved to Keller Park and lived in the neighborhood.  Well on November 13th at the morning service at NMC Kory and Ali along with David and Carrie Badertscher (www.kptransformation2.blogspot.com) shared about Keller Park and the Transformation.  Well after the service Chris went and asked Pastor Terry Bley if there had been thought of another family locating to Keller Park.  After Pastor Terry picked himself up off the floor, he knew that Chris was against ministry work and that the Holy Spirit was clearly talking, he said that we would have to talk about it.  Through emails and a sit down with Pastor Terry a plan was laid out on how to approach this possibility.

   Through part of figuring this all out we meet with Pastor Ryan Yazel and his wife Robin, who have been at Keller Park Church for the last 8 years.  These two are great and have their hearts right and I'm excited to see how our families relationship will grow.  Also, check out this blog post from Ryan as it states things better than I could think of doing ryanyazel.blogspot.com/2012/02/raise-them-in-hood.html#comment-form. 

   Now, to clarify a few things.  We will not be part of the Transformation as Chris and I both plan on still working our current jobs.  We will be helping with the Transformation and with the Keller Park Church.  What those roles will look like I believe only God knows at this point.  We are excited, scared and nervous and whatever other emotion you can think of.  Here is what we know for sure and that is that we have been called to live beyond ourselves and to help serve others.  This song seems fitting at this time.  The only glory that we seek is for God to be Glorified in all that we do!  We are currently accepting applications for prayer warriors as we continue on this journey that God has us on!

Price Reduced

We have reduced the asking price on our house. We are now asking 182,900. This is less than we paid for the house 5 years ago. If you are interested please give me a call at 574-209-0293.

We have officially put our house up for sale. If you are looking at buying a house in Bremen check ours out. We are asking $189,900. The house has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths upstairs and 1 bedroom 1 bath plus family room in the basement. There is a swimming pool in the backyard which is fenced in. Below are a few pictures of our house. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at 574-209-0293.