The Bible

I'm not a big fan of posting pictures of myself on the blog, but the one above I really like.  It's me reading the Bible and sharing from God's word.  I've really gained a love for the Bible.  It's a love that's been born out of spending time in it.  You can't really love someone if you don't spend time with them.  I believe it's the same of the Bible.  You can't really love it if you're not spending time in it.  And, what I've found is the more time I spend in it, the more I love spending time in it.  It's cool how God seems to work like that.

Yesterday I did a short study on Psalm 119.  Psalm 119 is the longest chapter of the Bible and is, ironically enough, all about God's word!  It's a psalm on the beauty of God's word and how it helps us stay pure and grow in our relationship with Him.  The short study I did was simply this ... I looked at Psalm 119 and underlined every way that God's word was described in the chapter.  Here are just a few of the descriptions I found from the Message paraphrase of Psalm 119:

• The road revealed by God
• His directions
• The right way to live
• The map of Your word
• Road signs
• Your promises
• Morsel of wisdom
• Your sayings on life
• Your clear revelation
• Words of wisdom
• Your commandments
• Your counsel
• The trail You blazed
• Your textbook
• Truth from Your mouth
• The advice You gave me
• Your wise guidance
• A miracle word
• Your finest sayings
• A beam of light
• Your dictionary
• The directions You gave

There were many, many more ... but as I read each one over and over again, I was struck by how the Creator of life wants us to know Him and His plan for our lives.  He doesn't leave us in the dark.  He wants to set us up for success ... success being becoming more like Jesus and embracing His way of life.  The way to do that is to spend time with Him.  We are always looking for short cuts, but when it comes to knowing God more, there aren't any. You pray.  You read the Bible.  You HAVE to do those things. Those things lead us to knowing God.  Knowing God leads us to trusting God.  Trusting God leads us to obeying God.  It's not enough just to know (to fill our heads with Bible knowledge).  Know should always lead to Grow.  Grow should always lead to Go.

If you're a follower of Jesus you have the very Spirit of God living in your life.  When you combine the Spirit of God with the words of God (the Bible) ... well, that's a winning combination.  If you haven't spent time with God lately, let me just say ... He misses you.  He'd love to hear from you again and would love for you to hear from Him again.  That only happens when you open up "His words of wisdom ... His wise guidance ... the truth from His mouth."

The Top 10

We're starting a new series at Grace Community this Sunday called the Top 10.  We'll be spending 10 weeks looking at the 10 Commandments and how they play out in our lives today.  Thinking about the 10 Commandments, though, got me thinking about this short clip from a Mel Brooks movie.  Not quite how the 10 Commandments came to be, but pretty funny nonetheless.

Star Wars Cake

This is a picture of the cake we had for our son's 5th birthday.  Lots of fun and he loved it!  It was done by a friend of ours at Layered Designs.  You can check them out right here.

One America 500 Festival Half Marathon

I finished my 3rd half marathon this past Saturday in Indianapolis with approximately 40,000 other runners.  I didn't quite make my goal time, but I did have my best time to date in a half marathon ... 2:13.  I finished 10,298th overall ... more towards the top than the bottom which does my ego good.  :) But, to keep me humble, I was passed by a guy pushing a wheel chair and also a lady that looked in her 60's. :)

The "Indi-Mini" as it's called is really an amazing experience.  Thousands and thousands of people, amazing volunteers, so well organized and ran, tons of people cheering you on along the way ... it really is a lot of fun.

It was a bit hotter than I was expecting.  Temps were in the 70's but humidity was 90%.  I was literally drenched by the end of mile 1 and knew that it was just going to feel hotter and hotter along the way.  But, my goal was to mentally stay positive the entire race.  I was able to do that, thankfully.  It's also fun to try to be an encouragement to other runners along the way, which I tried to do as well.  

Something else that was really cool ... lots of people from our church did this race.  I love that!  Our lead pastor is a runner and has set the tone for physical activity in our church and it has really worked it's way down into our people.  

Four years ago, our worship pastor's wife Marcie, encouraged me to run this same half marathon.  At the time I didn't think there was any way I could ever do it.  But, her small encouragement sent me on a journey that has stuck with me to this day.  And, what is really cool is that, since that time, she has also challenged many others to run the race and they've taken her up on her challenge and completed it.  Most people can do a half marathon.  Barring any physical limitations, most people can do one ... it's just a matter of deciding they want to do it and then putting the time in to make it happen.  It's not a matter of "can't" but of "won't."  So, you too can get on this journey if you simply decide too.  It's a fun ride!

Running

This coming Saturday I'll be running my 3rd half marathon.  I'm really excited about it and am ready to push myself to reach my goal time of 2 hours.  I'm about 7 minutes behind that pace right now, so I'm hoping that some adrenaline kicks in to help carry me to that goal.

I think I can call myself a "runner" now.  A competitive runner?  No.  But, someone who enjoys running?  Yes.  I did a 12 mile training run Sunday afternoon and am fairly sore today, but, as they say ... it's a good kind of sore ... a soreness that comes from a feeling of accomplishment.

I'm fairly new to running.  I didn't really start it seriously until 2009.  But, I'm pretty well hooked on it now and I think that running has taught me quite a bit about life in general.  Here are a few random things I've learned:

The Example Goes a Long Way

The picture below is of my son, Ezra.  He will often ask if he can go on a run with me.  He turns 5 this week and I've been able to take him out on a couple of different 1-mile runs with me and they've been so much fun!  My entire family sees me do this and I enjoy being able to set the example for them in this area.  As the husband and dad, I want the responsibility of setting and example for my family.  It's important for us, as men, not to run away from that but to embrace it.  It's our job to set the pace for our families.

 Sometimes You Just Have to Move Forward


I had the opportunity to run a marathon in 2010.  I remember during the training for it, some miles definitely felt longer than others.  Some days I'd feel great while running and other days were really difficult.  On those hard days I would keep telling myself "Just go forward.  One step in front of the other. Just keep moving."  Life will often throw things at us that are difficult to handle.  We have the option to stop and crumble or to keep moving forward.  I think running has taught me to keep moving even when I feel like stopping.


It Doesn't Just Happen


When I started running in 2009, I was severely overweight.  I knew it was time to drop some pounds and get back to being healthy.  What I also knew was that losing weight, no matter how much I WANTED it to happen wasn't just going to happen.  I needed to be intentional about it.  I needed a plan, goals, and the willingness to put it all in to action.  Things in life typically "don't just happen."  We put ourselves on paths that will always lead somewhere.  Every path has a destination.  Is your path taking you where you want to eventually end up?


Setbacks Happen


I ran my first half marathon in 2009 and was beginning to train for a marathon in the fall of 2009 when I began to develop an "overuse" injury called IT Band syndrome.  It's a tightening of the "illio-tibial" facia that runs on the outside of the legs from the hip to the tip of the fibula.  I had therapy, injections, ultrasound, rest ... nothing was helping.  I eventually had to have surgery to repair it.  It was set back.  I had to take a few months off.  Setbacks will happen, but trying to learn from them and not give up on the ultimate goal will take us far.  The next year, I succeeded in finishing my first marathon.


Stay Positive


On a run, the moment you begin to allow negative thoughts of being tired or sore enter your mind, you have a choice.  Will you continue to focus on those things or will you replace them with something positive?  I was in a conversation with my wife a couple of weeks ago and in that conversation I had mentioned a few negative things about myself ... well, more than a few.  I had said enough things that it caused my wife to say "Stop talking so negatively about yourself.  Why are you feeling the need to do that?"  I believe Satan tries to pour negativity in to us.  And, it's not enough to simply not think about it ... you have to replace the negative with something positive.  It's a weed and feed principle ... weed out the negative, feed the positive.  Since that conversation with my wife, I have tried to weed out the negative thoughts that so easily enter my mind and replace them with truth from God's word.  It's been a good practice for me over the past couple of weeks.


It's Fun Together


I enjoy running alone.  It's a good time for me to get away.  But, I also enjoy running with others.  When running with others, you have someone that helps push you and motivate you to do your best.  The picture below is of our team running a Tough Mudder this past November.  We trained together for it and helped keep each other accountable.  Accountability is key.  Who is the one asking you the difficult questions?  Who is the one that going to encourage you but also challenge you?  Life together is so much better than life alone.

Just a few random thoughts.  Running has been on my mind since I have the Indy Mini coming up this weekend.  Whether it's running, biking, weight lifting, whatever ... physical exercise can teach us a lot about life in general and just makes us better people.

Axis Wrap Up - Seek Truth ... If God is Good Why Do Bad Things Happen

We continued our "Seek Truth" series at axis Wednesday by trying to address the really difficult question of "If God is good, why do bad things happen?"  I've been serving as a pastor at Grace Community Church for nearly 10 years and during that time I have seen some really difficult things happen ... deaths of the old and the young, families broken apart, abuse, jobs lost, people lied to and lied about, I've witnessed kids in a third world country literally living in a garbage dump and digging for food for the day out of the trash.  I've also seen amazingly good things happen as well ... addictions broken, marriages restored, families brought back together, orphans rescued, the starving fed.  In our world the potential for both good and bad exists.  The difficult question is if God is good (and the Bible says He is), why would He even allow bad things to happen?  Why not just put a stop to it all?

I tried to talk to our students openly and honestly about it all and I realize that this is one of those issues that you can't really wrap up nicely, put a bow on it, and then be done with it.  There's a bit of a tension that exists and we may have to live with that tension.  What I believe to be true are these things:

- The Bible addresses the issue.  It doesn't back away from it.  Jesus said in John 16:30 "In this world you will have trouble; but take heart, I have overcome the world."  He never said expect everything to be easy.  He spoke the exact opposite ... expect life to be difficult.  He never sugar-coated life.  But, He did not leave us without hope, either ... "take heart, I have overcome the world."

- I don't believe God created evil.  I do believe that God created the potential for evil when He created mankind with the freedom to choose God or NOT to choose God.  The video below speaks of this and is worth the minute and a half that it lasts.

- People hurting other people is the cause of most suffering in the world.  There's a lot of injustice in our world and a majority of it is caused by selfish people living life on their own terms and causing others to suffer because of it.

- We often get upset because God doesn't seem to do anything about the injustices around us.  But, what if the tables were turned?  What if God looked at us and said "What will YOU do about it?"

- Sin has an impact on our world.  When one chooses sin, destruction is the natural result.  The enemy comes only to "steal, kill, and destroy." (John 10:30).  It's all he knows.  Our world is under the curse of sin (Genesis 3 and Romans 8).  Romans 8:22 actually speaks of our world being in the "pains of childbirth" because of the curse of sin.  I've seen the birth of all 3 of my children and with each birth I remember thinking "I'm so glad I'm not a woman!"  It's painful.  I saw the agony of my wife.  The Bible describes sins effect on the world as incredibly painful and it's crying out for relief from the curse of sin ... as we all are.

- God will ultimately judge evil.  God is amazingly patient with us (Psalm 103:10, 2 Peter 3:9).  But, Galatians 6:7 tells us "Do not be deceived; God cannot be mocked.  A man reaps what he sows."  A day will come when God says enough is enough.

- Jesus suffered too.  Think of what Jesus went through ... abuse, betrayal, torture, murdered ... we do not serve a God who is unsympathetic to our suffering.  When we hurt, He hurts.  And, our hurt ultimately brings us to grips with our longing for heaven ... we long for more than what this world offers.

- God can bring good out of bad.  I've had some difficult things happen in my life and, although I didn't necessarily see it at the time, I can look back and see that those difficulties were used to build character and strength in my life.  Some hurts may never go away.  But, a hurt is an opportunity for dependence upon God in a way that we never would have had otherwise.  Again, I'm not saying this is easy or fun to go through, but the difficult times can be used to build strength in our lives.  I remember watching the Steve Jobs commencement address at Stanford a few years ago and he shared openly how some of the hardest times in his life made him a better person.  

This is an incredibly difficult issue and there are many others who address it much better than I do (many of my thoughts are from The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask by Mark Mittelberg), but the reality of it is, no matter how well one addresses the issue, hurt is still hurt and none of us enjoy it or want to see others go through it.  That makes it incredibly difficult to accept ANY reason for it to happen.  But, I believe that in the midst of our hurts, God truly desires to walk with us and He hurts with us too.

First Day on the Job

Cool perspective from Pastor Jim on what he's learned since his first days on the job at Grace Community starting in 1996.  Check it out right here.