Be Refreshed!

We’re starting a fresh sermon series this Sunday as we look ahead to Pentecost Sunday.  The title of our series is PENTECOST TODAY!.  We’ll be hitting some of the basics, stirring up your appetite, and seeking for what God has for us today.

So here’s our homework over the month of May…

-Read the book of Acts.  Here’s what happened when a group of ordinary people were empowered by the power of the Holy Spirit.

-Read 1 Corinthians.  Here’s what happened when a group of ordinary people were empowered by the power of the Holy Spirit and then went a little wacky and became proud and divided.

-Pray.  Spend time in worship, prayer, and the Word.  The Holy Spirit is not a force or a thing, HE is God.  The third person of the Trinity.   It’s not an experience we seek, it is God we seek.

It’s going to be a great month!

Be Refreshed!

Proverb of the Day:   Proverbs 30:21-23  ²¹Under three things the earth trembles,
under four it cannot bear up:

²² a servant who becomes king,
a fool who is full of food,

²³ an unloved woman who is married,
and a maidservant who displaces her mistress.

Scripture of the Day:  Acts 1:4-5  ⁴On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. ⁵For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Quote of the Day:  “A church in the land without the Spirit is rather a curse than a blessing. If you have not the Spirit of God, Christian worker, remember that you stand in somebody else’s way; you are a fruitless tree standing where a fruitful tree might grow.”  Charles Spurgeon

Fly On!  Now that British Airways has a large portion of our money, Ethan IS going to Tanzania:)  We purchased his ticket today so the dates are set.  He’ll fly out of Ohare on Tuesday, June 2nd at 10:05 p.m., have a 7 hour layover in London, and arrive in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania at 7 a .m. the 4th.  He leaves TZ on Tuesday, July 7th, in the morning and gets home that night at 8 p.m.  Dar es Salaam is 8 hours ahead of us.  It’s about 18 hours in the air.

Keep him in your prayers.  Thanks!

Be Refreshed!

Proverb of the Day:  Proverbs 28:9 If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable.

Scripture of the Day:  Mark 16:15   He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.

Quote of the Day:   Chakula kitamu sana!   (Swahili for “It’s delicious!”)

It’s been a busy month between Easter, Tanzania, and the Steeple Tour, so the kids and I headed off for the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field Thursday.  We got there early and tailgated under the L tracks.  Then it was off for some batting practice and a little tour.  This was Isaac, Jeremiah, and Elizabeth’s  first trip to the sacred grounds, so we wanted to take it all in.

The weather was about 60 and a little breezy.  Not bad for spring in Chicago with the wind off the lake though.  A tight game with Zambrano pitching, but they fell apart late and lost to the Reds 7-1.  Still a fun day with the kids.  Would have been fun to sing Go Cubs Go after a victory.

Be Refreshed!

Proverb of the Day:  Proverbs 24:30  ³⁰ I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; ³¹ thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins.

Scripture of the Day:   Proverbs 22:6  Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

Quote of the Day:   “Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack,
I don’t care if I never get back,
Let me root, root, root for the Cubbies,
If they don’t win it’s a shame.
For it’s one, two, three strikes, you’re out,
At the old ball game.”

OK.  This is an old joke, but I thought it might be a good week for a government joke after tax day last week.

A cowboy named Bud was watching his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in Idaho when suddenly a brand-new BMW advances out of a dust cloud towards him.

The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks, “If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?”

Bud looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, “Sure, why not?” The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location, which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within seconds he gets an e-mail on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored.

He then accesses an MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with e-mail on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, gets a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and turns to the cowboy and says, “You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves.”

“That’s right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves,” says Bud.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on, amused, as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then Bud says to the young man, “Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?”

The young man thinks for a second and says, “Okay, why not?”

“You’re a congressman for the U.S. government,” says Bud.

“Wow! That’s correct,” says the yuppie, “but how did you guess that?”

“No guessing,” said the cowboy. “You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don’t know a thing about cows … this is a herd of sheep.

“Now give me back my dog.”

Be Refreshed!

Proverb of the Day:  Proverbs 21:20 In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.

Scripture of the Day:   Philemon 1:4-7  ⁴I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, ⁵because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. ⁶I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. ⁷Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.

Quote of the Day:   “A church in the land without the Spirit is rather a curse than a blessing. If you have not the Spirit of God, Christian worker, remember that you stand in somebody else’s way; you are a fruitless tree standing where a fruitful tree might grow.”  Charles Spurgeon

It was almost the perfect spring day off.  70 and sunny.  25 lbs of meat on the smoker with Julio’s Texas mesquite wood.  Cubs and Cardinals on the radio with the Cubs coming out ahead after a back and forth game.   A clean garage, fertilized yard, and sprayed trees.  All topped off with my homemade key lime pie.  Thanks God for a wonderful day!

Be Refreshed!

Proverb of the Day:  Proverbs 17:14 Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam;  so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out.

Scripture of the Day:   Genesis 2:1-3 ¹ Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.  ² By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. ³ And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Quote of the Day:   April prepares her green traffic light and the world thinks Go. ~Christopher Morley

Science has never drummed up quite as effective a tranquilizing agent as a sunny spring day. ~W. Earl Hall

Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world. ~Virgil A. Kraft

Jeremiah continued on his journey toward manhood today by cooking meat over fire.  Tomorrow night he’ll be off to the Ranger merit camp to sleep in the wild only protected from the elements by a thin nylon tent (while sleeping on a cot eating beef jerky out of a plastic bag:).  Godspeed Jeremiah.

Be Refreshed!

Proverb of the Day:  Proverbs 16:13  Kings take pleasure in honest lips; they value a man who speaks the truth.

Scripture of the Day:   Revelation 4:11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.”

Quote of the Day: “Children are innocent and love justice, while most adults are wicked and prefer mercy.” G.K. Chesterton

One final Easter story…  Sunday afternoon I asked Elizabeth if I could have a couple of her chocolate Crunch eggs from the big Saturday park hunt.  She was generous to share, but needed a count of how many I’d taken.  I had three so she grabbed her notebook to make a notation of the candy taken.  So either she has the giftings of an accountant or she has three older brothers who have been known to steal her candy.  (I’m going with the 2nd)

Be Refreshed!

Proverb of the Day:   Proverbs 14:32  When calamity comes, the wicked are brought down, but even in death the righteous have a refuge.

Scripture of the Day:   Luke 24:45-49  ⁴⁵Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. ⁴⁶He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day,  ⁴⁷and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.  ⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things.  ⁴⁹I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

Quote of the Day:  “God is pursuing with omnipotent passion a worldwide purpose of gathering joyful worshipers for Himself from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. He has an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the supremacy of His name among the nations. Therefore, let us bring our affections into line with His, and, for the sake of His name, let us renounce the quest for worldly comforts and join His global purpose.” — John Piper

¹When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. ²Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb ³and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

⁴But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. ⁵As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

⁶“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.  Mark 16:1-6

I hope you had a great Resurrection Day!  We opened up The Overflow Cafe, had a great breakfast, baptized four in water, and had a full house.  Here’s 3 of the baptisms in our tag team baptisms.

Be Refreshed!

Proverb of the Day: Proverbs 12:4  A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown, but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones.

Scripture of the Day:   1 Corinthians 15:12-19  ¹²But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. ¹⁵More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. ¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. ¹⁹If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

Quote of the Day:   “The stone was rolled away from the door, not to permit Christ to come out, but to enable the disciples to go in.”  Peter Marshall

Yesterday is was a 1.3 mile cross walk as we carried a large wooden  cross to our community Good Friday service.  There we worshiped and remembered the work of Jesus on the cross of Calvary.  It was  a beautiful time together with the community family of God.

Today was 500 foot mad dash to a couple of acres of candy strewn around Sycamore Park.   A pickup full of Crunch bars, Laffy Laffy, chocolate eggs, Nerd Ropes, and more.  (It’s nice living close to a Nestle distribution center)  It was a beautiful spring sunny day.  Only Elizabeth is young enough for the candy haul anymore.  Here’s a few pictures from the day.  It’s a pretty big crowd, but this is only about a 1/4 of it.  They divide the kids up by age and this is the oldest group.

Be Refreshed!

Proverb of the Day:  Proverbs 11:4   Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.

Scripture of the Day:   Matthew 27:62-66  ⁶²The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate.  ⁶³“Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’  ⁶⁴So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”  ⁶⁵“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.”  ⁶⁶So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

Quote of the Day:   “Without Christ there is no hope.”  Charles Spurgeon

There’s an old Carman song that goes, “It may seem like Friday, but Sunday’s on the way.”  But this has already been an awesome week and we’re not even to Good Friday yet.  A full house Sunday for Palm Sunday and a neat altar time during worship.  I shared on Communion with the Uth last night and I’ve never seen them so connected.  A young man who has been here just a few times told the couple that brought him on the way home that he’d given his life to Jesus tonight.  We’re up to four for water baptismal on Sunday.   Cross walk tomorrow with no driving sleet like last year:)  The Overflow Cafe is ready for Sunday and our new signage is going up tonight.  It’s going to be a great Resurrection Day!

This is the night of Passion Week of the Last Supper and Jesus’ betrayal.  I’m reading Luke’s account today.  Be sure to take a little extra time in worship and the Word today.

Be Refreshed!

Proverb of the Day:    Proverbs 9:13 ¹³ The woman Folly is loud; she is undisciplined and without knowledge.

Scripture of the Day:   Luke 22:19-20  ¹⁹And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”  ²⁰In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

Quote of the Day:   “There is no mystery in heaven or earth so great as this a suffering Deity, an almighty Savior nailed to a Cross.”  Samuel M Zwemer